The Value Of Speaking To A Person

I just read an interesting post on Michelle Golden’s Golden Practices weblog about voicemail message content.  It made me wonder, however, about the best use of voicemail.   In an age where secretaries are become scarcer or are working for 73 professionals at the same time, it is pretty common that you bypass humans when you call someone and get that person’s voicemail.  Almost all voicemail messages tell you how to escape, but odds are when you try, you only end up with someone else’s voicemail.  Sometimes it drives me crazy.

One form of message is that “let me tell you where I am and what I am doing each and every day” kind of message.  Other’s don’t even bother with a message.  You get the annoying system message interrupted by the person saying their own name, sounding like they are stretched out on a torture rack just about to have their entrails ripped from their body.  Or there is the general “I am away from my desk” message that frequently adds options like “or I am out of the office doing really important stuff for somebody else so that I don’t have time to talk to you.”

My own thought on voicemail is this.  I make sure my secretary answer my phone.  A lot of times, its a client calling while I am discussing nothing of moment with a colleague.  I want the client’s call to trump, and only a person answering the phone can do that.  If I am busy, I want my secretary to find out when the best time for me to call back is.  Or if its an emergency, I want her to interrupt me or find someone else to handle the emergency right then.  MY THESIS:  GOOD CLIENT SERVICE MANDATES THAT THE CHOICE TO LEAVE A VOICEMAIL MESSAGE BE THE CLIENT’S CHOICE, NOT A DEFAULT RESULT BECAUSE NO ONE EVER PICKS UP THE PHONE!

Comments

[Michelle Golden]

Excellent point, Patrick. There is absolutely no substitute for the live human.

Remember when voicemail first became the "thang" and people were just relieved to no longer be "screened" out by secretaries and receptionists? They could actually leave a direct message for the honcho who may or may not ignore it.

Actually, it's pretty sad that most people will go out of their way to avoid talking to clients by having the phone roll to vm or have someone else grab it.

A business across the hall from mine is in the IT personnel placement business. I find it highly ironic that they have a complex non-human phone system that takes no less than 3 minutes to navigate to get to someone who IS IN their office. They're in the people business for cryin' out loud.

Then again, so are we...

Thanks for the post and the reference. And, hey, why weren't you at BlawgThink! don't blame Saturday on trial!! :-)