The Leading Edge - Summer 2008 - (Page 9)

Briefs instant-response world leads to new expectations for voice mail By ann M. gynn P owerfeedback, a Pennsylvania-based market research firm, gives a 60-minute promise. If a client leaves a voice message, an employee will get back within an hour. “It is one of the five big reasons we give to people to do business with us,” says CEO Scott R. Gingold. “People are spending considerable sums of money on market research, they want to work with firms that value their business and time.” In a world of handheld e-mail devices, texting and cell phones, customers have new expectations about how quickly a vendor, co-worker, customer or anyone else should respond to their messages. How many times have you left a voice mail or e-mail and the person didn’t respond within a couple hours? Your thoughts wander—maybe this person didn’t care about what I had to say, maybe they don’t like the service we provide, maybe we did something wrong, maybe they don’t like me. With new time expectations on the message senders’ end, receivers are taking additional steps to meet those needs and still have a realistic, productive working environment. Gingold says six months ago Powerfeedback took steps to significantly reduce the number of voice mails its employees received. It changed its phone system so that during normal working hours calls can be routed right to the appropriate person’s cell phone, which is paid for by the company. “There was some apprehension when we first deployed this. It quickly evaporated. A big reason is productivity,” Gingold explains. “There is some ‘stress’ built into traditional voice mail. With a regular voice mail, you need to take down the message, try to meet the caller’s ‘best time’ to call back, and more often than not, leave another voice mail. Let the phone mail message ping-pong match begin.” He says that phone costs have gone down and productivity has increased because employees don’t have to waste time listening to, then responding to messages. Powerfeedback employees have total control of the phone system—the phones are not automatically forwarded and they can route their calls to voice mail during non-traditional work hours. If they opt for the latter, callers are given an extension to dial for urgent needs so the 60-minute promise can be fulfilled. YouMail CEO Alex Quilici says everybody tends to want to respond quickly to their messages, but many are worried the recipient will answer the phone. “They’re concerned if they respond to the call with a call they can get stuck in a long conversation that’s not related to the original topic,” he says. Or they do not want to return a phone call and bother the person with the interruption. YouMail created a business to handle those worries and concerns. It customizes consumer voice mail for mobile phones—users can go online and see all their voice mails then respond with a text message or e-mail. “It gives people a lot of choices on how and when to respond,” Quilici says. In addition, users can create an Internetaccessible library of personalized voice mail greetings—for example, instead of having to re-record a greeting every Monday to tell callers you will respond after the weekly staff meeting, you record it once then select weekly from the library. YouMail users also can sync their cell phone address books so they can personalize greetings to the callers. So, for example, if Joe in accounting is supposed to call and his number is in your address book, you can create a greeting that says, “Hi Joe. I need to know if Customer Z paid last month’s invoice.” That way Joe knows what you want and can respond appropriately and efficiently. Marjorie Brody, author of “Professional Impressions … Etiquette for Everyone, Every Day,” says technology can be a wonderful communication tool. But when it is abused or misused, she cautions, it can be a hindrance to getting things done. She recommends changing a voice mail greeting when you will be gone at least one day so callers know they will not hear from you that day. She says greetings also should provide an alternative contact whenever possible, such as: “I’m out of the office today with no access to e-mail or voice mail. I will be back on (give the date). If this is urgent, please call (Name) or e-mail (Name). Otherwise I will respond when I return.” And of course, when you do return, change your voice mail greeting so callers know you’re back in the office. e ThE LEadIng EdgE 9

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Leading Edge - Summer 2008

The Leading Edge - Summer 2008 Contents Better Negotiations Instant-Response World Leads to New Expectations for Voice Mail Bits & Pieces Top 10 Misconceptions of Doing Business in Cyprus In a Nutshell: Q&A The Leading Edge Alliance

The Leading Edge - Summer 2008

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