Phone Messages - the Wrong Way and the Right Way!

[Ragin Cajun]

Checked my phone messages this morning. Had one from last night. Played it several times to no avail.

Caller was too fast, mumbled, and I could barely hear him. Couldn't even get the phone number. Hope it wasn't important!

One thing I learned over the years when leaving a phone message:

Be SHORT

Speak CLEARLY

Speak SLOWLY

When giving you phone number, pause between groups: Example: xxx pause xxx pause xxxx. Give them time to write it down.

REPEAT your phone number.

Ditto for your name.

Did I say keep it SHORT?!

At the end of the message, repeat you first name - only your first name.

Don't bother to waste time telling them when you called, the time, etc. The phone message system tells them that! I have one client who gives me the day, pauses to think, then the date, the month, pauses again and gives me the time. Grgggghh! I know that already!!! I've asked him there is no need to do that, but he does it anyway. He also leaves a LooooooooG rambling message often repeating himself, etc. Time is $$$!



End of today's rant.

I feel SO much better!

RC

 

[sgunsel]

Voice mail can sabotage your advice, which is very good. Some voice mail systems delete all quiet time, a feature I suppose, so speaking phone numbers slowly can result in very rapid playback. If you leave too much space when speaking between the numbers, ALL of the space is deleted and the spoken numbers run together. The real problem is that some people just are not comfortable with voice mail, and that is probably not fixable.

 

[Howard Burger]

yes, I agree, and...

yes, I agree, and...

On the other side of the coin, we've evolved out of the cutsie answering machine greetings but IMHO a five second message to the caller is plenty - this is who you've reached, the number you called, leave a message. period.

But then the poor guy has to listen to the automated voice from the cell phone company that follows my greeting. Mine uses a computerized female with a syrupy british (why british?) accent: please leave your message ahfter the tone etc.etc. ; on a job site my caller doesn't have time for all that rannygazoo. The cell phone companies are doing their subscribers a disservice with this stuff.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Sometimes it is the cell phone service. I have gotten a few calls that were obviously from cell phones and you could not hear anything.

 

[Besoeker]

Sometimes it is the cell phone service. I have gotten a few calls that were obviously from cell phones and you could not hear anything.

I get the odd message from time to time that goes something like:
"This message is four minutes long."
Then you get conversation in the background but no actual message. Usually it's somebody with my name as a contact and they accidentally call it, maybe when they are going down their list of contacts.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I get the odd message from time to time that goes something like:
"This message is four minutes long."
Then you get conversation in the background but no actual message. Usually it's somebody with my name as a contact and they accidentally call it, maybe when they are going down their list of contacts.

That is what is often affectionately referred to as an a** call. You sit down and the phone does the rest. :grin:

 

[LarryFine]

I hate people who leave such long messages that it times out before they finish the entire phone number. :roll:

But then the poor guy has to listen to the automated voice from the cell phone company that follows my greeting.

Agreed, and how many cell phones are equipped to receive faxes?

 

[iwire]

Speak CLEARLY

Speak SLOWLY

When giving you phone number, pause between groups: Example: xxx pause xxx pause xxxx. Give them time to write it down.

REPEAT your phone number.

Ditto for your name.

Yeah I do all that.

I can't remember how many times I have had to keep rewinding a voice mail to try to catch the phone number.

Typically the caller speaks clearly and slowly until they get to their phone number and suddenly they are in a race to get it out.

 

[steve66]

Yeah I do all that.

I can't remember how many times I have had to keep rewinding a voice mail to try to catch the phone number.

Typically the caller speaks clearly and slowly until they get to their phone number and suddenly they are in a race to get it out.

Y... o...... u....... g....... u..... y...... s........ a...... r...... e.... j... u.. s.. t..

w.. a.. y.. t.. oo p i cklfasdjklafsjkl;asnmfasljklsdfa.

(Many space

 

[Besoeker]

That is what is often affectionately referred to as an a** call. You sit down and the phone does the rest. :grin:

My sister quite often does that.
But then she's something of a technophobe.
She's just a couple of years older than me but I sometimes think there's an entire generation gap between us. Well, no. Scrub the sometimes.
She doesn't do internet. All of my other relatives do. She's old but so am I.

I post on a few forums and I'm a moderator in some.
Here, I quite like some of the technical matters. I think I learn some and maybe contribute some.
Beyond that, much of what gets discussed relates to local standards and local jargon so goes over my head.

 

[boxs21]

One thing I learned over the years when leaving a phone message:

Be SHORT

Speak CLEARLY

Speak SLOWLY


RC

you are totally right, at least like above, if we give a good example other will follow

 

[ptonsparky]

I received a call on my voice pager from an eldrly woman. "My refigerator is broken can you come fix it?" click. Fortunately she called back a couple days later.

 

[lakee911]

I work with a guy whos voice mail message is, "Hi you've reached [John Doe] and I'm unavailable at the moment, please leave a mess...is not available. After the tone, please leave a message." ROFL

The first half was meant for you to insert your name only and the computerized voice at the end takes care of the rest.

 

[LarryFine]

Have you tried doing him the favor of letting him hear it?

 

[Electric-Light]

I love text messages.