Voicemail...Are you returning those messages?

As a 50-something kind of guy who remembers the days of answering machines, like many of you I think fondly of the times when our family (kids, dogs, etc.) hunched over that little box in the living room with scripted words or got recordings that sounded something like this: “You’ve reached John AND Janet…sorry we aren’t home to take your call, but when we get back from shopping, running the kids around or whatever else we’re doing (insert barking dog), we’ll give you a ring back. See you later! (everyone chimes in) BYE!”  Those were fun times! In the office it was a bit more professional, but that box made it challenging to pick up messages from the road. The next person to get to the office had to listen to all the messages that were left, jot them down on paper, and then distribute them to the right person because there was only one machine…not so efficient, but it was what we had.

Business voicemail moved to Audix and early stage operational style systems that allowed for some personalization and retrieval remotely; depending on your age, you will recall what that meant for you. Now-a-days (as if the 80’s & 90’s were a lifetime ago) we have sophisticated phone systems that “find us” at the device we happen to be holding or that include unified messaging that allows us to forward, ignore, or send an automated text saying we’re busy. There are now smart phones that will even pick up your dry cleaning at the end of the day…well…maybe not just yet.

Many people have pointed out that my voicemail message sounds the same as it did 30 years ago, maybe yours does as well, “Hi you have reached the voicemail of Dave Moravec. Sorry I’m not able to take your call at this time, but if you leave your name and number, I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks again for calling and have a GREAT day!” Yours might differ to include where you are today. I tried that longer ago only to forget each day to change the message from the day/week/month before unless someone reminded me in a message. Many of you are letting the listener know when you’ll be back so that you set an anticipated call back timeline. I was never good at this because as a salesperson, if I thought I’d be back in the afternoon, I’d usually have stayed out making more sales calls or better yet, found my way to the golf course! Some people get more personal with their salutation while others add a religious touch by including “have a blessed day”.

Still other systems will allow you to transfer to someone else by hitting a number combination ranging from zero (0) to a specific extension number where someone else who doesn’t want to talk with you has to take a message or worse yet…you get THEIR voicemail. As Chris Berman of ESPN would say, “C’mon Man!” One last annoying tactic when creating a voice message is the practice of rattling off an alternate number to reach you. Most people speak faster when saying their phone number (as if to save time) and often don’t include an area code. They do so not thinking that there may be no way to write that number down if it has been garble it up, imagine trying to do so if you’re driving hands free in the car. Argh!

My real reason for writing was not to get you thinking about what your message says, but rather to give pause to think about what you do in response to those messages that are left. After all in my message underlined above I did say that I would return their call as soon as I could…right? All too often we as busy people “intend” on returning those calls in the order in which they were received, when in reality we are going to “choose” which ones to return and in what order. This gives the person leaving the message a sense of wonder…”hmmm…I wonder when _____will return my call?” Worse yet is the question most sales professionals (and people in general) have on their mind when they leave a message; those in business understand what that is, don’t you? That question is not WHEN, but IF a returned call will come?

If you are still reading this you will likely have a clear picture of me up on a soapbox orating from the top of the bandstand, attempting to shout over the mutter of the crowd while waiting for the band to play. The audience there isn’t listening either and most people today are not. Why is it so hard to simply return the call and address the message that’s been left on VM? Let’s look at the statistics first…

According to an article posted at www.ringlead.com , the following statistics are incredibly insightful.

• The average voicemail response rate is 4.8%. (that’s only 1 in 20) (*InsideSales)
• A team of 50 sales reps leave about 1,277 hours of voicemails per month.  (an average of one 24 hour period or three business days per person…Wow!) (*RingDNA)
• 80% of calls go to voicemail, and 90% of first time voicemails are never returned. (*RingLead)

I will suggest that the reasons for these alarming stats generally fall into three categories:

1. The younger generations (and most people) don’t like talking to people, especially sales people.
2. Email, IM chats, texts and other written communication has become the norm.
3. Voice mail takes up valuable time in our day; people see this as an annoyance.

While you may come up with other reasons WHY it’s okay not to return the call, to the extent that you’ve set the expectation in your recorded message, isn’t there somewhat of an obligation to do so?  You did say that IF the caller left their information that you’d get back to them, right? So if you didn’t intend on returning the call, why say it in the first place? There doesn’t seem to be much integrity in that…at least not from my perspective.

In my next post, I will go into more detail about the reasons why people don’t return calls, but for now will suggest that you consider changing your voice mail message to the following, or potentially change your attitude about returning the call itself.  Feel free to modify the text below to fit your “real” voice mail actions:   “Hi you’ve reached my voicemail. I have my phone set to DND (Do Not Disturb) because I’m busy with other more important stuff (not really) or maybe I’m away from my desk. IF you leave your name and number, know that I may return your call or I may not. That will depend on whether I think your message is worthy of a call back. If you’re a salesman trying to make my life better with some new offering, be sure to leave your price and website address so that I can look into it on my own and don’t call me back again. If you expect me to call you back, get real! If this is a personal call, please text me at 345-7890 and I’ll continue to chat you up. For those of you who don’t leave a message, I know who you are. Our sophisticated caller-ID system has now recognized your number and will send you to Voice Mail Hell each time you call again…sorry…that’s just how it goes in today’s world. I will return exactly 4.8% of my calls (1 in 20) because that’s all the time I have in my day…I am SO BUSY, you know what I mean? Have a fantastic day and again I truly appreciate your call.”