GTD 2006.22: Getting Things done with voice mail

This may sound like an oxymoron, but you can Get Things Done with voice mail, if you set expectations correctly. The key here, whether it’s your voice mail greeting or messages you leave is to communicate what the listener’s next action should be and what they get out of the bargain.

Voice mail is a trade – you are either trading some of your valuable time in the hopes the person who left the voice mail has something to say, or you're spending some of your time leaving a voice mail that will hopefully not get deleted.

Now these tips don’t apply to your friends and family who are exempt and have your cell number, or the slimy cockroaches known as telemarketers: these are rules of the road for business voice mail.

Your voice mail greeting:

• Redirect to email. The first thing a caller hears when they call me is if they want a response, they are better off emailing me. Then I give them my email address, slowly, in case they don’t get the hint. I can deal with 10 emails in the time it takes to deal with one meandering voice mail. This gets rid of most worthless calls.
• Set expectations. I then point out that I check for messages at the beginning, middle and end of workdays. Period. During the 80’s and 90’s, I saw from the inside dozens of name brand corporations whose employees paid a “voice mail tax” on their productivity because everyone was in the habit and set the expectation that voice mails would be picked up and acted on immediately. Now, those same companies pay the “email tax”. You don’t have to.
• Cover the basics. Finally, I ask the caller to please leave their number or better still their email slowly, and what they want, and whether this call needs to be returned.

This all may sound like a long VM greeting to get through: good. I don’t want voice mail. Did I mention that my business phone’s ringer is permanently off, and the little blinking light is covered by a USPS Ayn Rand stamp from some years back?

Of course, sometimes the show is on my foot, and I need to leave a voice mail. Again, I’m asking the person about to be subjected to Yet Another Voice mail to give up a measurable fraction of their remaining days alive: I’d better get to the point and make it worthwhile.

When leaving a voice mail:

• Who am I and what is the (short) reason for my call. Not my life’s story, not everything about whatever, not even a whole lot. The point of the message is either to complete the communication loop, provide the Next Action or coordinate communication.
  • Closing the loop – Provide them with the information requested. Done.
  • Next Action – They need to do this, I’m going to do that, whatever moves the ball down the field.
  • Coordinate Communication – Presumably, if we are playing voice mail tag or it makes sense to talk, I’ll suggest how and when and for how long.
• Desired Next Action. Does this voice mail need a voice reply, an action, an email or nothing.
• Facilitate Next Action. If I do need, and want, their call, my telephone number or more usefully, my email, slowly, twice.

If I sound like I think voice mail is a crime against Getting Things Done in the age of email, I do. But as long as we’re stuck with it, set expectations whether getting or leaving voice mail that pre-process for your Getting Things Done process.

Technorati Tags: GTD, micro-ISV, voice mail, voicemail

Comments

[Steve Schapel]

I have written something on a related topic here... http://blog.datamanagementsolutions.biz/2006/02/phone-or-email.html

[Matthew Cornell]

I wonder if one of those services that does free voicemail-to-email would be useful? Something like http://gotvoice.com/ ...

[Steve Schapel]

Thanks a lot for this, Bob. And how refreshing to see you take this attitude. It seems to me that people who still use the telephone as their preferred mode of communication are wage and salary earners, as against those whose income is dependent on productivity.