NFIB

Avoiding the Voicemail Maze, Part I
04/ 11/ 2002

It seems that hardly anyone answers the phone anymore. Everyone has voicemail or an answering machine. Calling residences is bad enough, but calling individuals at their office has become a nightmare. In the past, executives had secretaries or assistants who answered the phone and took messages. Now you'll probably just reach an automated receptionist voicemail with the message, "This is the secretary of (so and so), I'm not in my office right now, but if you'll leave a message ..."

In the first of a two-part series, Jeffrey Moses offers some suggestions for breaking through the voicemail maze and speaking with a live human being.

Some phone salespeople and survey takers insist that people at home and in the workplace are hiding behind their voicemail, screening their calls and simply calling back who they want, when they want. This is their prerogative, of course, but when you're cold-calling or asking people to do you a favor by participating in a survey, you're not going to be high on their call-back list. In fact, you probably won't get called back at all, even if you leave dozens of voicemail messages. The percentage of callbacks is so low that it's almost always better to not leave a message and simply get on to the next call. Not leaving messages will lower your phone bill, save your personal energy (it takes a lot of attention and stamina to leave one message after another hour after hour) and will most likely result in a higher number of contacts by the end of the day.

The exceptions to the above point are if people are expecting your call, if they will be highly motivated to call you back, or if you are making only a few calls at a time and won't expend undue energy leaving voice messages. If you are going to leave messages during a calling session, prepare a message before you begin calling so you'll know exactly what to say. For more information on this subject, please see the former Workshop,"Want Your Voicemail Messages Returned? Make Sure People Can Understand Them."

Most veteran callers know is that there is often a best day reach people. This best day varies slightly from industry to industry, but in most cases it is Tuesday. Perhaps it's because on Tuesday people are settling in for the week, sitting at their desks doing paperwork, or because companies have fewer meetings on Tuesdays. The worst days for reaching people are Mondays and Fridays. It may take several weeks of daily calling to determine if there is, indeed, a best day for the type of individuals you're calling.

As for the best times of day, early mornings are often best, before people get in the swing of their schedules. Late in the day is the worst time to contact people because they're trying to wrap up their work. Many people think that calling during the noon hour isn't productive, but experienced callers know that you just might catch a number of people eating lunch at their desks.

Next week's Workshop will continue this topic.

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