I hate voice mail. Whenever I have to check voice messages, I feel like I’m entering a kind of Twilight Zone, a different dimension of frustration where I lose all control of time.
It gets to where I get annoyed with people who leave me voice mail. I’m far from the only person who feels this way – and far from the only person who has left an announcement on my phone with one form or another of, “Please send me e-mail”.
When I calm down enough to think about it, the reasons are clear. Voice mail is the worst of two worlds – the e-mail world and the phone call world. In the e-mail world, you don’t get to interact immediately with the other person; you and they can’t interrupt with a question, ask for details or pick up subtle vocal shadings. And in the phone call world, the other person can go on and on – and, I guess, I can too. The voice mail world is missing interaction, like the e-mail world, and is far worse in the tendency of some people (you know who you are) to go on and on – like the phone call world, only worse. Voice mail is also a hassle to check, much harder than e-mail or (when the other person is available when you need them) a phone call.
The New York Times has now noted these frustrations, analyzed them – and cited Google Voice as an answer. In an article titled You’ve Got Voice Mail, but Do You Care?, Jill Colvin hits several nails right on the head. Via interviews, she even puts some numbers on the inefficiency of voice mail:
>According to her calculation, it takes 7 to 10 steps to check a voice mail message versus zero to 3 for an e-mail.
>Mr. Siminoff estimates that textual voice messaging is about 15 to 20 times faster than traditional voice mail.
The article then mentions Google Voice as a solution:
>Most important for the voice-mail-averse, Google Voice will also transcribe voice mails at no cost.
Consumers can be expected to go for Google Voice instinctively, inherently aware of these frustrations. Businesses, with a much greater need to cost-justify their decisions and to find a way to weigh convenience against, for instance, security concerns, can reprise the calculations above for themselves and their own specific situations.
About Bud Man
Million-selling tech and environment author; senior manager and consultant for Apple, Microsoft, HSBC, and startups
The New York Times disses voicemail
I hate voice mail. Whenever I have to check voice messages, I feel like I’m entering a kind of Twilight Zone, a different dimension of frustration where I lose all control of time.
It gets to where I get annoyed with people who leave me voice mail. I’m far from the only person who feels this way – and far from the only person who has left an announcement on my phone with one form or another of, “Please send me e-mail”.
When I calm down enough to think about it, the reasons are clear. Voice mail is the worst of two worlds – the e-mail world and the phone call world. In the e-mail world, you don’t get to interact immediately with the other person; you and they can’t interrupt with a question, ask for details or pick up subtle vocal shadings. And in the phone call world, the other person can go on and on – and, I guess, I can too. The voice mail world is missing interaction, like the e-mail world, and is far worse in the tendency of some people (you know who you are) to go on and on – like the phone call world, only worse. Voice mail is also a hassle to check, much harder than e-mail or (when the other person is available when you need them) a phone call.
The New York Times has now noted these frustrations, analyzed them – and cited Google Voice as an answer. In an article titled You’ve Got Voice Mail, but Do You Care?, Jill Colvin hits several nails right on the head. Via interviews, she even puts some numbers on the inefficiency of voice mail:
>According to her calculation, it takes 7 to 10 steps to check a voice mail message versus zero to 3 for an e-mail.
>Mr. Siminoff estimates that textual voice messaging is about 15 to 20 times faster than traditional voice mail.
The article then mentions Google Voice as a solution:
>Most important for the voice-mail-averse, Google Voice will also transcribe voice mails at no cost.
Consumers can be expected to go for Google Voice instinctively, inherently aware of these frustrations. Businesses, with a much greater need to cost-justify their decisions and to find a way to weigh convenience against, for instance, security concerns, can reprise the calculations above for themselves and their own specific situations.
About Bud Man
Million-selling tech and environment author; senior manager and consultant for Apple, Microsoft, HSBC, and startups