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I hate voicemail: Here’s four tips on handling voicemail2 minute read

At the moment… is voicemail messages. I’ve hated them for a while without realising it, but I’m increasingly annoyed with them.

If you don’t answer, you can see who called anyway, thereby giving you enough info to return their call. If they then leave a message it’s both a waste of time and money for the both of you – unless of course there’s a deliberate reason for leaving the message – “Hey, I coudn’t get through to you, my phone is going to cut out soon I’ll meet you on the corner of such and such…”

But to leave a chain of messages within five minutes like “Hey, pick up your phone”, followed by “Hey, where are you, not picking up?”, followed by “Hey I can’t seem to get through”, is just dumb.

The problem is, I’m getting more and more “chain” voicemails. And I’m beginning to hate them, just like a friend who has never had voicemail diversion on his phone. His attitude is: “They’ll ring back, or if it’s urgent, they’ll SMS me”.

That’s far more sensible.  I can see it’s getting ridiculous – and reminds me of a lyric from the Living Colour song: “Information Overload”.

Surely by now humankind should have established some sort of voicemail etiquette?

I’ll start:
1. If you don’t know me, and you’re calling me, then it’s best you send a short SMS introducing yourself and asking for a response when I might best call you back. Don’t leave a voicemail.

2. If I do know you – never leave a voicemail

3. Unless it’s something amazing (eg: you’re trying to record something) please don’t leave a voicemail.

4. If we have a great day / night out / I do something really nice for you and you feel the need to call me and leave me a lovely voicemail. Please write me a nice SMS instead. Please don’t leave a voicemail.

More?

Published by Constantine Frantzeskos

I build and grow global businesses, brands, and digital products with visionary marketing & digital strategy | Non-Executive Director | Startup investor and advisor | Techno-optimist

One thought on “I hate voicemail: Here’s four tips on handling voicemail”

  1. Paul Karagiannis says:

    Also,

    What about people with no caller ID? Show us your number, don’t be scared!

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