Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
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Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
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Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
#2I have had a soft phone at my last two jobs, and it was never used. We used Skype or Slack for our text communication, and Google Hangouts for more personal communication. And it worked perfectly well for maintaining a good flow of communication.
Voice mail is, like texting, an asynchronous method of communication, but it requires more hardware and mental context switching to receive and respond to voice messages.
I think the biggest hurdle to adopting something like this is going to be the different perception of voice mail (and phone calls in general) between generations.
Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
#3Voice mail is too often used by windbags to hear themselves talk instead of getting to the point. In protest of those that seek to waste your time and mine on unnecessary formalities, I purposely don't leave nor listen to any voicemail. Period. It's just too slow and infringes on other people's time, like that step uncle everyone always dreads seeing at the holidays.
Instead, send a very short email with the content in the title and . You're done.
(And no, Google Voice transcription isn't good enough.)
Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
#4In my office voicemail as just used as proof you tried to get a hold of someone. "They didn't answer my email, and when I called they didn't answer, so I left a voicemail". Once you leave a voicemail you have satisfactorily established to management that you have made every effort to reach someone. I haven't listened to a voicemail in over 3 years.
Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
#5I have had a soft phone at my last two jobs, and it was never used. We used Skype or Slack for our text communication, and Google Hangouts for more personal communication. And it worked perfectly well for maintaining a good flow of communication. Voice mail is, like texting, an asynchronous method of communication, but it requires more hardware and mental context switching to receive and respond to voice messages. I…
voice mail is asynchronous for the person sending it, but it's somewhat synchronous when you're on the receiving end: you cannot skip through the boring parts right to the interesting content, you have to linearly listen to the entire message. I think this is the biggest problem with voicemail. If all voicemail could turn speech into text, and it would end up in your e-mail inbox or "voice mail" app on your phone, we'd have the best of both worlds.
Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
#6Voicemail doesn't seem as "on the record" as email. I wonder, does this matter?
Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
#7Having to work with vendors a lot it would be difficult for me to give it up. I know, they could simply email me, but the reason for the voice mail was the immediacy of the situation. Likely if they leave one they will zip out an email, but those take more time to write than leaving a voice message.
Now I can see the reason for ditching voice mail if this is how some people are dodging responsibility. Seen that, where people will ignore calls and pretend to not be present. Instant messengers only work if they are mandatory, where I am you can simply leave it off so again your "not there". Many email programs can block return receipts.
So what problem are they really trying to solve?
Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
#8My voice mail message at work for the last few years has suggested that people contact me through email and that I tend to ignore my voicemail blinking light for weeks at a time. As a bonus (for me), I don't include my email address in the message so the only people who typically leave me messages are vendors cold-calling me.
Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
#9Having to work with vendors a lot it would be difficult for me to give it up. I know, they could simply email me, but the reason for the voice mail was the immediacy of the situation. Likely if they leave one they will zip out an email, but those take more time to write than leaving a voice message. Now I can see the reason for ditching voice mail if this is how some people are dodging responsibility. Seen that, wher…
The problem is that voicemail is obnoxious to use and pretty pointless. The last company I worked for, I didn't even have a phone number, let alone voicemail. If someone needed something they could use an asynchronous form of communication, like email or IM (we were required to use Hipchat).
The last job I had where I had voicemail I refused to check it. Not because I was dodging work, but because listening to long, rambling voicemails is time-consuming and irritating. I can skim through a rambling email very, very quickly to get the information I need. I can also search my old emails quickly and easily. Neither of those things is true for voicemail.
Re: Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters
#10Voicemail is dead, and it's because of the significant minority that leave giant messages, as well as anybody you never met who "just wanted to touch base with you". It's a shame too, because there are times and topics for which texting/emailing is an incorrect alternative.
Unfortunately people don't realize the 3rd rule of Dr. Luther Waxling: "Just because it happened to you doesn't make it interesting" (at 1:24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGfc2zZ2PQI)