Thought for the day:
There is an inverse correlation between: A) The likelihood of someone calling me on the phone to obtain the resolution to a technical problem (rather than using IM, email, or blog), and B) The likelihood that I can fix the problem remotely.
In other words, the more likely someone is to call me on the phone to help them with a computer problem, the less likely they have the technical competence to carry out whatever instructions I might give them.
There is another inverse correlation as a result of this… The more likely someone is to call me on the phone about a computer problem, the less I want to talk to them.
True for you?
Kinda
I have an tangential corollary: The more technical the way you contact me, the quicker you’ll get your problem fixed. Voicemail is a useless way to contact me. I may check it a couple of times a day. Email is scanned constantly, and it exists permanently and visibly to remind me. Talking to me on the phone is good if I can fix your problem immediately. Otherwise, it depends on my determination of the urgency and the quality of the notes I take. Same with seeing me in person.
Also, there’s a bell curve of how much the user tries to fix the problem themselves that is acceptable. Those who just throw their hands up are losers. Those who try to do things they don;t understand are dangerous. I like somehwre in the middle, provided you do not try to self-diagnose.
My $.02 Weed
Voicemail…
I couldn’t agree more. The only way I finally got my wife to check her (dozens!) of voice mails was to arrange to have them emailed to her. So she still only checks them once a day or so, but that’s better than once every few months.
I check my voicemail in the morning, and then forget about it for the rest of the day. Email is so much clearer that I only want to use the phone when I need to ask several questions rapidly.
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Matthew P. Barnson
E-mailing voicemail rocks
My last job had this function, and it rocked! So functional for travel, and I hated dialing into the phone to retrieve the message. I would either listen to the attached WAV file or use the Web interface. I’m missing that at the new job.
It’s funny how phone calls and voicemail have suddenly become like a third or fourth option for reaching people, at least in media relations, as far as I am experiencing day to day. I rarely get a reporter calling by phone anymore to get a question answered – unless its on deadline and I’ve not responded to their urgent e-mails and text messages. And while a few good pitch calls still get made, at this point I know the habits of those 50-100 reporters I want to reach, and mostly they want e-mail or RSS feeds. Calling someone is getting to be old school (though sometimes there’s no school like the old school, right?).
There has been some talk in the university media relations circles about how reporters are complaining that they aren’t getting their calls answered. Some of the responses have been blunt on two fronts – either, we aren’t calling you back because the media make a habit of not calling us back; or, the university folks are so wedded to e-mail that the voicemail isn’t getting through the clutter.
email/vmail
Once we finish the VOIP transition at my location at work, we’ll have that, too. Cool thing, though: my phone company is Vonage, and they’ve had this for a long, long time.
Right up there with fax machines, which as far as I know are only for use when a signature is important these days.
…”You’re late. When you asked me if I was doing anything later, I didn’t realize you’d actually forgotten. I thought it was playful banter”…
The biggest issue I have is people asking complicated questions over email. I’d rather type up a two-page response which answers it correctly than try to have a phone conversation where I just need to send him an email to explain anyway.
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Matthew P. Barnson
Fax still popular
I tried to find a prior post in which I highlighted the surprising popularity of fax machines. I believe it was 2005 when the CES reported a surge in fax sales to close the highest year in fax unit and revenue sales. A lot of businesses still use the fax machine as a primary document transfer. I can’t discuss personal experience (still nervous about revealing my business connection online) but I will write the majority of sales come through customers sending orders via fax.
Of course, on my end, I don’t have a fax machine. I use eFax to convert the paper fax into an email attachment. Faxing is ridiculous. If I have to send a signature page, I just use the scan-and-attach routine, where the attaching document in an email is a scanned signature page.
fax still popular
By any chance, do you have reference to the CES report on fax sales? I’m looking into the decline of fax use and always up for more data.
Don’t Have Data, But Interesting Coincidence
Hello JC (not verified),
I don’t have that data, and recall it was a news article which referenced the CES data.
Coincidentally, I just had my free eFax account suspended yesterday. As part of the suspension, eFax did the ‘fear monger’ approach in which they yanked all access and threatened that “customers are trying to fax you right now…are you sure you can afford to miss a fax?” It’s pretty interesting eFax thought by suspending my free account for exceeding the monthly allotment they could charge an exorbitant rate to keep me on as customer. Like anybody remembers a fax # to the point where it’s critical to maintain the same number?
eFax wanted $18.95/month for me to keep my local fax # (even more coincidence — a Salt Lake City area code) for 130 pages incoming/month. A quick web search found myFax offering: base plan of $10/month, 200 fax pages received as email attachments, toll-free fax # at no additional cost, no contract, no setup fee, first month free, $100 annual includes two months free pre-pay.
See ya’ eFax. Got my new toll-free # from another provider at a 56% cheaper rate for better service. Appreciate you giving it to me for free for all these years, though.
Email vs. Voicemail
I’ve recently had to deal with people in the DC media relations industry for a work project, and I never understood why they hated my phone calls. Now I understand. Tim, thanks for the post on trends.
As if reading our minds, David Pogue writes yesterday about a couple solutions available to the general public, SimulScribe and SpinVox.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/technology/15pogue.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The other thing about DC media….
They are addicted to their Blackberry and other variants of the same. Watch any C-SPAN coverage of the minutes before and after a White House briefing by Tony Snow, all you see in the background (besides how old, balding and plain old frumpy most reporters look) is media types checking their Blackberries. It’s insane – it’s not a new phenomena, for sure, they’ve been a staple since 9/11 for nearly everyone in any position of authority, but the media have gone crazy with them.
And heaven help you if you leave your ringer on during on the President’s so-called ‘news conferences’ – he hates those ring tones, really lays into the offending journalist…
That’s dang cool
That’s dang cool. I want it. But I don’t want to pay for it 🙂
Now if there was just a way to transcribe all my emails into voicemails using my own voice without having to speak, my ultimate goals of uber-l33t hermit-ness will be complete!
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Matthew P. Barnson
Remote Control
There is a new thing about helpdesk support that sort of throws the inverse formula out of whack: more and more tech support people are now able to remotely connect to a client’s computer directly. And that makes a phone call much easier to deal with.
If a user calls me with an issue, I can – while he/she is on the phone – connect to their computer and have them show me EXACTLY what error is occurring, rather than having to rely on their vocal (or worse, written) description of the issue. Additionally, I can then either talk them through the fix while looking over their shoulder or just take control of the machine and fix it for them.
Of course, I suppose that remote support while on the phone is not the same as just talking over the phone, so maybe the proposed rule that “the more technical the means of resolution, the quicker the resolution” still applies here.
GoToMyPC
I wonder how well gotomypc.com has done? I hear their ads on the radio all the time…
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Matthew P. Barnson