We had dinner last night with a woman high up in PR. She gets a lot of voice mail, and says she listens to an entire message only about ten percent of the time before deleting it.
Having thought about it, the voice messages I leave others are too verbose. I can get a bit tongue-tied because it's do-or-die, right? You've got to sound coherent and smart in one take. In the future I think I'll rehearse my voice message in my head before I call.
The best voice mail messages are short and sweet. "Hi this is your name, and company if necessary, your telephone number" should be the first things out of your mouth. If the person already knows who you are and why you might be calling, that's all she needs. She can delete the rest and call you right back.
Nothing, and I mean, nothing is more irritating than having to listen to a long message just to get the call-back number. Which by the way I usually repeat at the end of the message as well.
Posted by: Account Deleted | October 11, 2007 at 11:58 AM
Words of wisdom, Susan!
Posted by: Sam Whitmore | October 15, 2007 at 08:05 PM