Over the next 3 posts I’d like to share with you my thoughts on some simple points of etiquette that will make your job search, career change or promotion project go soooooooo much better!

Our first lesson is Voice Mail.

Voice mail is a real bugbear of mine.  I’m the kind of person and work in the type of industry where people often phone me for advice.  They’re either a friend of a friend or I know them and they phone me asking for some help. Which I’m more than happy to do.

Invariably, I’m either on the phone or in a meeting so I’ve got my mobile turned off.  When it’s turned off, it goes straight through to voice mail.  Please believe me when I say this – there is nothing more frustrating, upsetting & time wasting than when someone who I don’t know or has been recommended to me by someone that I do know has left a voice mail and have said their name really, really quickly, they haven’t given me the context of why they want to speak to me and the worst thing is, apart from their name being thrown out there like a hand grenade , is their mobile number being mumbled at the end.  Instead, they have left me a voicemail that goes for 30 seconds or a minute – (in fact, the best one was I had someone who left me a voicemail for 3.5 minutes)

Now, you might think to yourself, ‘Oh, that’s not a long time, 3.5 minutes.’  Believe me, it is a very long time when you have to play it back four or five times because the person, right at the end, shot out their mobile number like a machine gun.  They said, ‘Oh, James, please phone me back on 04928297.’  It actually sounded like that.  I think I heard the first four digits, which in Australia, all mobile phones start with the two digits ’04′ so I heard that correctly, and I think I heard the third one.  But the rest of it, apart from the very last number, which was 7, was just a blur.  And I had to play it back at least 3 or 4 times, and at the end, with the number that I had, was actually wrong.  There’s nothing worse!

So, in terms of etiquette when it comes to voice mail, you need to do three quite simple things.

Firstly, you need to state your name clearly at the start. ‘Good morning, this is Joe smith,’ and you say it at a pace that is easily heard.  If you’re phoning up someone that you’ve never met before, say your name slowly because they don’t know who you are.

The second thing is to state the reason for your call.  The reason might be our mutual friend John Brown had recommended me to you and I’d like to speak to you about a career change.  It could be something as simple as that.  If you’re referred by someone, then ALWAYS mention the name of the person.  It’s really important.

Thirdly,as mentioned earlier, please, please, please quote your mobile phone number, not once, but twice and do it slowly.  What I do, at the end of every voice mail, even with people that I know who may not have my phone number handy – most have it in their phone, of course, but as a sign of respect to them, this is what I do.  ‘John, thank you very much for your time.  “Can you please phone me back on mobile phone number 0410 46 36 37.  That phone number again, 0410 46 36 37.”  What that does is that it basically guarantees that the person has not only heard the number, but it’s given them time to write down the number.  When you’re wanting advice from someone, or to network or when you’re wanting to arrange a meeting  you want them to phone you back. Otherwise why call?

Next post – we tackle email etiquette!

All my best,

James

James Evangelidis

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Tagged as: mobile, respect, voice mail