How To Leave A Voicemail Message
by Dave Tufts - August 7, 2007 / 3:04pm View more articles
There seems to be a downward trend in the quality of voicemail messages.
People seem to be leaving long messages and waiting until the very end before leaving a callback number. Even worse, when the caller finally does leave a phone number, they suddenly turn into the world's fastest talker.
When leaving a message on someone's cellphone, stating a callback number isn't as important. The person's phone can automatically dial back. However, most office voicemail systems still require the recipient to listen, write down a phone number, then dial it.
When a caller talks for 5 minutes then does a John Moschitta impersonation while leaving their callback number it's maddening. If you miss the phone number, you're forced to playback the entire message and try again.
Next time you leave a voicemail, do this:
- State your name
- Leave your phone number, talking slower than normal.
- In one sentence, tell the person why you called.
- Repeat your name and number.
- Hang up
Example
Hi Steve, this is Dave Tufts. Please call me back at [slowly] 978 - 462 - 8848.
I got your email about the database exports and have a question.
Again, this is Dave from iMarc and my number is 978-462-8848.
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6 Comments
I got your email and "No", men should never wear capris and "Yes" those jeans make you look fat.
Again, this is Nick from Vegas and my number is 424-278-2527.
*note, not my real number, but a funny cypher regardless
I totally agree, as should all people...
How about "top posting"? http://daringfireball.net/2007/07/on_top
I really think there's just a growing movement of "lack of thought" (some would say "consideration", but I'm not as nice) culturally. It seems like no one really thinks about what they're doing or saying —simply depending on the magic of technology to make everything work out in the end.
Of course I say this now, and will almost certainly find something after posting my comment which I will wish I had thought more about before saying it...
I quote the entire message and then reply on top. This creates a flow of posts, sorta like a conversation-based blog between two or more people. If I don't need the rest, I don't scroll down, but otherwise it's there if I need it.
As for voicemails: that sounds like a short-coming of voicemail systems more so than people. You don't put textareas where you only want text-input field length entries. Shorter message times and an growing list of people that called can solve that.
See the theme here? Large lists of things are good.
that sounds like a short-coming of voicemail systems
To me, it sounds like the reality of voicemail systems.
I think top posting is good when you need to provide that "historical context" but why quote at all if it's just a couple back and forth lines of mindless communication... that's what IM is for :-)