How to Contact
When contacting people, your likelihood of receiving a timely response will be substantially increased by including your own contact information in a usable format.
What do I mean? Here is the best possible way to contact me (and I suspect most people; especially technology-savvy folks):
- Send me an email. I will usually read it immediately on my phone and react according to the nature and/or urgency of the message. If necessary, I can respond immediately from my phone. If a more involved response is called for, I can handle it the next time I am using a PC.
- Send me a text message. This works best if we already know each other. It is more transient than email, but for many kinds of communication this is perfectly acceptable.
- Bonus points if the communication includes your phone number in a format that can be parsed by my phone. This is because I can click on your phone number from the message on my phone and initiate a call to you. Epic fail if you include your phone number but it is in a format that cannot be parsed by my phone. I am left dumbstruck, staring at your phone number: read-able, but not click-able. You are giving me work to do in order to contact you. No, thanks.
Here is an example of the worst-possible way to contact me:
- Call me (especially unscheduled) and leave a voice mail including a number to call you back. Whenever you find yourself about to speak a phone number or email address onto another person’s voice mail; just stop. You’re doing it wrong! You are about to create a situation where they will have to:
- Figure out who you are. If I do not know you (well) this usually means writing your name down as I listen to your message.
- Figure out how to respond to you. If I do not already have your contact information stored, this usually means writing down your phone number or email as I listen to your message.
- Respond to you by typing into my phone or PC the information you spoke onto my voice mail, and I then had to write down. Stop giving me extra work to do to respond to you!
- Special communication-blocking bonus points for calling me using a number that is either:
- Blocked from caller ID.
- Different from the number that should be used to call back.
I understand that a phone call is often the best way to communicate. But the likelihood of you calling me unscheduled and my being able to take your call and deal with our communication immediately is remote. And I’m practically a nobody. Imagine how unlikely this is for other, more important people!
I am pleasantly surprised by voice mails that say something like, “Hello, this is John Smith from SomeCompany. I am calling about the important thing, and will follow up this call via email.” John Smith called me from the number he wants me to use to call him back. My phone already has the number from caller ID, so he did not have to speak it onto the voice mail. John is also going to send me an email containing the details of why he called me, including his contact information in a format that can be parsed by my phone.
Thanks for saving me time and effort responding to you, John – you are going to hear back from me as soon as possible!
In: Articles · Tagged with: Communication, Contact, Email, Networking, Phone, Voice Mail
Shad finds high-value intersections between business strategy and information technology. He currently resides in the Madison, WI area.