Is Voicemail Becoming Obsolete?
I admit it – I still leave voicemails. However, I have found myself hanging up on voicemails more and more lately. I don’t do this because what I have to say is unimportant…just the opposite usually. I have information that is too urgent to drop it into someone’s voicemail box.
Voicemail Monster
So, instead of trying to call again and again or simply giving up on the first try, I hang up on the automated voicemail and immediately employ any number of OTHER communication vehicles to reach my target. These could include cell phones or text messages; emails or twitter!
One more thing about voicemail… It’s been around for a LONG TIME folks. You don’t need to be all polite and thank me for calling. You definitely don’t need to tell me to leave my name and number after the freaking Beep, and I assume that you will call me back at “your earliest convenience” – so scrap that line too. If you actually want me to leave you a message, just say “This is [insert name here] please leave a message”. Done.
I decided to do a little experiment on myself recently. I counted how many different ways someone can get in touch with me. Depending on how well you know me, there are a huge number of ways to reach me, should you get the dreaded voicemail.
- My physical office (you could stop by)
- Direct Office phone
- The InnoGage 1-800 number
- Home phone
- Cell phone
- Google Voice Number
- Fax
- Text message
- AOL IM
- Facebook IM
- Facebook message
- Twitter @me
- Twitter DM (which also sends me an SMS on my phone)
- InnoGage Email Account
- Gmail Account
- Yahoo Email Account (yes, I have one…had it since 1994…can’t give it up)
- GoogleTalk
- Foursquare
- Skype call
- Skype IM
- Comment on the InnoGage blog
- ‘Contact’ form on the InnoGage website
- Message via YouTube Channel
- Message via Vimeo Channel
- Message via Flickr Channel
- Message via SlideShare account
- Message via my Delicious account
- GoogleWave
- GoogleBuzz
So, drop me a voicemail if you must, but if you really need to reach me…you know how to find me!!
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- NACAC comes up short on Blog, but gets it right on Facebook
- Suspended by Twitter…When “free” sucks
2 Responses to “Is Voicemail Becoming Obsolete?”
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Tom–
So true! We did a survey recently, and it seems that very few people actually rely on voicemail consistently for messaging. And as your post so amply shows, there are about a zillion other ways to contact people and get the message. So why on earth would we rely on voicemail alone, except for the fact that we always have?
If you’re curious, the voicemail survey results are posted here: http://spoken.typepad.com/spoken/2009/10/is-voicemail-passe.html
Andy says: It’s a usability issue. VM takes longer to access than text. I get the same feeling when I arrive at a web page with just one large video embedded on it. It’s annoying. I can’t skim through a video.
Leave a Reply
Tom–
So true! We did a survey recently, and it seems that very few people actually rely on voicemail consistently for messaging. And as your post so amply shows, there are about a zillion other ways to contact people and get the message. So why on earth would we rely on voicemail alone, except for the fact that we always have?
If you’re curious, the voicemail survey results are posted here: http://spoken.typepad.com/spoken/2009/10/is-voicemail-passe.html
It’s a usability issue. VM takes longer to access than text. I get the same feeling when I arrive at a web page with just one large video embedded on it. It’s annoying. I can’t skim through a video.