Okay, sometimes it’s easier and quicker to just call the friend back than to listen to the voicemail they left. You see that Mom called, and you just call her back. Fine.
But when it’s an unfamiliar number/one that’s not in your contacts list, and the caller has left a voicemail, why not listen to that?
I left a message yesterday for someone whom I don’t know–someone who does a service for my mother–and about an hour later I get this plaintive, anxious call, “Someone called me from this number? Was that you? Do I know you?” And I quickly identified myself and said, “I guess you didn’t listen to my voicemail?” “Um…no, I didn’t.” And I wanted to scream: “WHY??”
That’s a very minor example. But a friend of mine manages a service business that gets referrals from various city agencies to go out to homes that need repairs after fire, flood, etc. The people from his company call the parties who need the work done and leave messages explaining who they are, why they’re calling, etc. But nine times out of ten the people just call the number back-- the main number shows up on the caller i.d. There are 15-20 repair people making these calls, so when someone just calls the main number and says, “This number was on my caller i.d.,” it takes some time to figure out which person called them. And then the client gets all irate at the delay, taking the attitude, “Well, YOU called ME…”
Yes, yes, there could be procedures put in place to handle callbacks, like a master list at the switchboard-- that’s another subject. And not the point.
Am I the only person who WANTS a voicemail when a stranger calls me? The message I’ve recorded on my phone is something like, “Hi, this is ThelmaLou. If this is a business call or if I don’t know you and you would like a call back, please leave a message.” I will not be calling unknown numbers if there isn’t an accompanying voicemail. And then I do listen to any messages.
P.S. I also wish that when people (even friends) leave messages, they would give some clue as to what it’s about. Just, “This is Mary Lou-- call me.” Not helpful. A better, less anxiety-provoking message is, “This is Mary Lou-- just wanted to make sure it’s okay if I bring my iguana to dinner tomorrow night. I’ll bring food for him, too. Call me.”