Your Own Voice Mail

You can't answer the phone when everyone calls. (Most of us don't want to.) Most of your callers won't be terribly hurt if you have them leave a message, provided

• Your incoming message is brief, professional, polite, and gives them the information they need.
  • who you are (just in case they don't know)
  • who else they can talk to (in case they don't need to talk to you personally, but they need to talk to someone)
  • that you're out of town (if you're out of town)
  • that they can leave a message if they need to
  • that you're there to serve their needs
• There are other options besides leaving a message.
• Customers are told an answering service is answering their calls if it's true. (You'd be amazed at how often answering services claim they are told not to identify themselves.) If you use an answering service, you need to check periodically -- is it
  • courteous
  • accurate
  • on-time

Abuse

Some companies will discipline or even fire employees for voice mail abuse. (Hopefully the company will spell out what it considers abuse before its employees actually do abuse the system. But not all companies do, unfortunately.) Abuse definitions may include:

• Transmission of offensive messages, including anything that violates stated harasssment policies.
• Using the system to set up or conduct side business.
• Forwarding confidential internal messages to outside persons.
• Breaking into someone else's voice mailbox.
• Broadcasting unsolicited non-business-related opinions.
• Solicitations to buy or sell goods.

Companies that have voice mail abuse policies similar to this usually have analogous policies for e-mail. Generally speaking, if you consider common courtesy -- treating your co-workers as you would want to be treated -- you can avoid most forms of e-mail or voice mail abuse without even knowing what the abuses are.

Customer Service

Big companies (and some small ones) have complex systems allowing callers to (hopefully) find exactly what they need. There's a wide body of research focused on improving voice mail-based customer service systems. You may be able to avoid following much of that research by

• Having voice-mail menus with only a few levels, and only a few options on each level. The human brain can't follow more than a few options at a time.
• Evaluating new options for usability before putting them into service. This includes follow-up with customers. REGULAR follow-up.
• Having a simple operator option (e.g. dial 0) at all menu levels.
• Using function keys for the same purpose at all levels if they must be used at all.
• Using "hold music" can give listeners a headache. But more importantly, a silent hold can give callers a chance to work on other things while they wait.
• Making sure customer service reps have right in front of them any information customers have been required by the system to "punch in."

References

CPSR Portland, OR Chapter. Draft policy for appropriate e-mail and voice-mail use.
Levinger, D. and C. Page. Response to above policy.
Nickell, J. A. "To Voice Mail Hell and Back." Business 2.0, 07.2001.
Spaeder, K. "Make Voice Mail Work for You." entrepreneur.com, 01.21.2002.