Voice mail

Dwight expresses his loathing of voice mail, then admits it's not going anywhere:

In companies where technology is a means rather than the end, voice mail is alive and well. People reach for a phone when they want to have a quick conversation, and if they don't get a human, they'll leave a message. It happens millions of times a day.

Or, look at it this way: When was the last time you talked to any serious business person who didn't have voice mail? Yeah, I didn't think so.

No, voice mail isn't dead, and people won't stop using it. It's a tool, and it has its place. It's just no longer in first place, thankfully.

At work, which do you prefer to receive: Voice or e-mail? And, when reaching out instead of receiving, which do you prefer?

I'm more or less indifferent. A big part of my job is troubleshooting end-user problems, and in many cases there's just no substitute for the phone for that task. I can't always use it - some of my customers are in Asia, and we're never in the office at the same time - but it's not optional for me. I also deal with a lot of mobile users, and as often as not the phone is their only option to reach me. Given that, a certain amount of voice mail is inevitable, and that's fine by me. It gets the job done.

For some things, however, email is definitely better. I get a lot of requests for routine tasks involving the server, all of which I can do on my BlackBerry. Your odds of getting me to do those things in a timely fashion is much greater if you shoot me an email, especially if I'm away from my desk, because I check my email way more frequently than I check my voice mail. Plus, seeing in print the name of someone I need to perform some task on solves the "how do I spell that?" problem.

Bottom line, some things require a conversation, and for those things I prefer the phone. Leave me a voice mail, I'll call you back. For more routine stuff, send me an email. There's a reason we have different tools for different jobs. Why force a choice when you can do what makes the most sense?

I'll now ask the same question Dwight did: What do you prefer, voice mail or email? Leave a comment and let me know.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on July 17, 2008 to Technology, science, and math