When leaving a message, DON'T JUST TELL ME TO CALL YOU BACK!

Am I the only one who thinks that it’s better not to trust to chance that someone got all the information they need from a message? I know that I like to speak to whomever I’m trying to reach in person to be assured that they indeed got all the information they needed and didn’t have any further questions. Hence, I’m the type to leave a message with only my name, number, and a request to return the call.

Also, if the nature of your call is personal, it’s best not to leave that kind of information on a machine that may be accessed by more than just the person you intend to reach.

Just my 2¢.

Well, XJETGIRL, when they call you back and you tell them what the call was regarding in the first place, do you mind when they put you on hold for five minutes while they go scrounge up the information they need to handle your request? Cause that’s basically what happens when people leave no information in work-related calls. I personally don’t like to waste my time like that - it is completely inefficient. And I also like to decide whether it warrants a call back or not. Someone calling to tell me something I requested is done doesn’t get a call back - the issue is dead for me.

What Dances is rightly complaining about is people whom he will call back anyway, but it takes extra time and often extra calls when they don’t tell him what the call’s about in the first place.

If you’re concerned about all the information getting through, you can always give them a follow-up call if they don’t call you back.

I don’t think anyone’s requesting a doctoral dissertation-length message with every relevant bit of information. It would just be nice to get some idea of why the caller is calling so I know how important it is to return the call, whether the call needs to be returned at all, and so I can have the information I need in front of me. So, for example, if my mother calls me, I want to know if she has a question or if she just wants to chat. If she has a question, I want to have some idea of what she wants to know so neither of us wastes our time getting the answer. Chances are, I can just e-mail her the answer and save my own money. Or, if she just wants to chat, I know it’s nothing important (like, no one has died or anything like that), and I can call her (or not) at my convenience.

If it’s a business call, I can research the requested information and get back to the person without wasting their time or mine making small talk while I look it up.

If I have to leave personal information (like a third party’s information), I usually will keep trying until I reach a live person, THEN I give the information.

It’s better than a semi-anonymous message. In my house, those aren’t returned at all.

Robin

Sometimes, I don’t even listen to my messages, I just call back from the caller ID*. Then, when I finally get to a point where I can bother to access my voice mail (Like, not on a roof, not driving looking for a new address, etc…) I find it very interesting to listen to rambling messages that give very little real information. It seems that many people cannot get to the point without it actually being an interactive conversation.

Then, sometimes I just erase everything because I don’t want to scroll through 22 messages to find out nothing needs to be done right away anyways. Just moody, I guess.

  • [My phone beeps at me every 10 minutes if I missed a call. Then, one buttun reveals the number that called. For the message, I have to access voice mail with a code and keep on hitting buttons to forward, erase, save, yada yada. When I call back, I’m usually handsfree, so I can continue doing things (unless it’s really noisy stuff.) Since I beat the hell out a phone, pager, PDA, etc…, I often leave it in a safe area and check it periodically.]

On my home phone, I just punch a button on my digital answering machine to jump to the next message.

I like conversations, whether long or short. I don’t like long messages. Of course, that’s me. All my close friends and longtime business associates know this about me. Hey, they’ve got their own hangups about phone stuff that we all have to deal with… ymmv.

My voicemail at works states: “You have reached the voicemail of [MissTake]. I am either away from my desk or on the telephone right now. Please speak slowly and clearly. Leave your name, case number or social security number, phone number where you can be reached during the day and a detailed message. I will respond as soon as the information you have requested is available.”

So, half of my phone messages tend to be:
“Yeah, this is Tom [indecipherable last name]. Call me at [indeciperable mumble]. I’m calling about my case”.

:putz:

Heaven forbid I don’t don my Miss Cleo hat and KNOW just WHO Tom is out of 300 cases, as sure as hell Tom will call my boss and whine about how no one ever calls him back.

I’ve taken to saving phone messages who I have NO CLUE who they are to play for my boss just in case.

The “Putz” smily is : wally with no space :wally
:stuck_out_tongue:

NoClueBoy: Arrrh! My coworker does this and it drives me NUTS! We call eachother multiple times a day for various things, so we need to leave detailed messages or else chances are, the person being called doesn’t know why, and neither does the person who placed the call! So I’ll leave these detailed messages with 4 or 5 peices of information I need and it never fails.

She’ll call me…“what’s up?”

Me: “did you listen to my message”

Her: “No, I just checked caller ID, what’s up?”

Me: “Gah! Listen to your goddamn message, I’ve called 10 people in the last half hour, I don’t remember why I called your lazy ass!”

:mad:

Then, it must not have been that important. :smiley:
Seriously, in my line of work, the phone mostly gets used to bring people together, not to solve problems. In remodel, a problem gets solved when we’re actually there on the site.

Hey, that’s why I said ymmv. This works for me.

MissTake, I’ve found that as soon as people hear that they’ve reached voicemail, they go on automatic pilot. They stop listening to your message and wait for the beep. You could tell them that you’ll be in Outer Mongolia for a month, leave the names and numbers of six different contact people, and tell them not to leave a message because you won’t hear it, and they’ll still leave a (not-very detailed) message–because they don’t listen!

When I was on maternity leave, I used my voicemail system’s extended absence greeting specifically because it won’t let people leave a message. I knew if I didn’t I would have 3 months worth of messages–because they don’t listen!

So, really, it doesn’t matter what information your message tells them to leave. They’re likely not paying any attention to it anyway.

featherlou, et. al have caught on to my exact point. I rather pull your paperwork, if necessary call a supplier, do web research, etc., prior to calling you back. That way I can tell you that your Buttmatic 2000 is still in warranty, that it sounds like a frammised widgetizer control module, and I’m having one drop shipped to your location from the regional parts distribution hub in Rangoon, and will be out on Thursday for a service call.

When I’m told nada, and I have to call you, and you’re not in, and then you call me back and still tell me nada, Thursday has come and gone without anything useful being done to make you a happy little camper, and the only one winning is the phone company, charging both of us while nothing of value transpires.

When I get a recording, I’m ready to leave a good detailed message. Example-my automated commercial fuel bill came with a missed invoice noted. I checked, and I had paid on time, so I called the company, after hours, and left them a message with my name, customer number, the date that the check was written, the date it was presented to my bank for payment, and so forth.

The next day, the owner called and thanked me for providing all the information, that it had been misposted, and my account would be credited. Entire phone time spent for both calls, less than 3 minutes.

Perhaps it is a more critical issue to me as wasted, nonproductive time doesn’t earn a nickel when you’re self-employed, as I am. YMMV.