Posted on: 07 December, 2001
Author: Richard Lowe
I am a busy ... of a ... dollar company. As such I ... busy and must choose where focus my energy and efforts with ... Thus, I am always looking for those things that s I am a busy executive of a multi-billion dollar company. As such I amincredibly busy and must choose where focus my energy and efforts with greatcare. Thus, I am always looking for those things that steal time.One of those time stealers is the phone. In fact, next to meetings andemail, it is probably the worst time stealer of all. Phone tag is acomplete waste of time, and I generally simply refuse to play the game atall.Voice mails, like email messages, can be major time wasters. I know you'vegotten at least once voice mail in your life that goes on and on, with thecallers phone number mumbled at the end. You just wasted five or tenminutes!So what I do is simple. Unless the voice mail message is from my boss orsomeone very important (like my wife), I will ignore it unless it followsmost of the voice mail etiquette rules listed below.Tell me who you are - I hate playing the guessing game. If you leave amessage without leaving your name (first and last is best), then I'm notgoing to spend a lot of time trying to figure out who you are.Leave contact information - Look, I'm pretty good at what I do but I don'thave every phone number in the world memorized. In fact, believe it or not,I may not have your phone number even listed in my address book. Even if Ido, you've given me another reason not to call you back - you've annoyed meby forcing me to have to search around for your number. This wastes time,and unless your call is important to me you are probably not going to get areturn call.Be polite - Believe me, my day is hard enough without listening to a hostilevoice message. You want to make I don't call you back (unless you are theboss or the boss's boss), then leave a very emotional message. You'd beamazed at how quickly I'll delete those that are hostile or somehowupsetting.Tell me what you want - I'm highly unlikely to call you back if you call outof the blue and leave a voicemail like "this is Joe, call me". Unless Ialready know what you want (or suddenly develop telepathy) I am not going toreturn your call.Be brief - Don't leave a fifteen minute message. I can guarantee you thatunless you are my wife or a rich uncle leaving me a million dollars I willhave erased it long before. If you've got something long winded to say thenpresumably you've done business with me before, so send me an email instead.Give me the information in order - Tell me who you are first, then, ifnecessary, what company you work with. Now tell me your phone number, thentell me what you want. That's the best way to get me to return your call.Tell me the phone number slowly - The best thing to do with a phone numberis say it slowly. A second between each digit is best. This gives me time towrite down the number. Also, don't mumble your phone number. Speak itclearly and precisely. It's also a good idea to repeat at the end of themessage just to make sure I've got it.Generally, as I said at the beginning of this article, I will not evenattempt to return phone calls unless they follow these rules. And believeme, it does not take long to "train" regular callers - they want me to callthem back.Follow these suggestions and you will get a prompt call back with theanswers or service that you need. This saves everyone time, which improvesour productivity. Article Tags: Voice Mail Etiquette, Voice Mail, Mail Etiquette, Phone Number Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com