This Call is Being Recorded
“Let thy speech be better than silence or be silent!”
—Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Greek historian, rhetorician
BC 60 — BC 7
(Flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus)
If you knew that the entirety of your phone conversations were to be recorded, wouldn’t you conduct yourself differently?
This isn’t an article about the NSA, but about two aspects of phone communication we think are due for improvement:
1. Messages Left
Mostly, you don’t know you’re headed for an interaction with a recording device — they catch you unprepared. So you meander on, trying to get a grip on that moment when you knew exactly just what you wanted to say. Disoriented, you pause, getting embarrassed, then race to say what you have left before hitting the time limit. Beep! Take Two… Oops. There isn’t any take two — and now you’ve been immortalized as a blithering idiot…
Hey. This might be a job for Fusion’s “Ready, Set, Go!®” But it would require a tiny change of habit… What if you begin viewing every phone call as a potential mini-presentation? What if, instead of just getting the idea to call Harry or Lorraine, you paused for a moment before dialing, and mentally “prepared” for the call? A thirty second pause would allow you to say to yourself, “What action do I want? Why would they do it? How do I break this down into chunks?” That’s all that’s required… You’re home free!
If they answer: You’re good!
If they don’t: You’re actually better — leaving the most reasoned, thoughtful phone message ever!
But it’s not just about the messages you leave. It’s also about…
2. Recorded Greetings
Is there anyone on the planet who doesn’t get the “beep?”
Do I overstate? Doesn’t it strike you that we’re no longer required to tell our callers that we are “either away from our desk, or helping another customer? Your call is important to us so please leave your name, number and the time that you called?”
Could be, we’ve been reaching a lot of voice mails lately… But here’s a modest proposal: Find something worth mentioning: a quote, a story, an observation, a feature about the product, or the reason why you’re proud to be working there — and put THAT on your recorded greeting! Or, be silent. Let the “beep” speak for itself!
Consider it this way: You’ve got thirty seconds of your caller’s attention: So, What? A great, unusual, rule breaking, engaging, even irreverent and warm greeting requesting a re-connect at a more opportune time? The lame standard? Or “The Beep?”
Your choice…
Oh, and change it once in a while!
Dionysius. Maybe he saw this coming…
“Let thy message be better than silence or Be silent.”
Applications
1. Individually
You can do this on your personal phone, and well, make it really personal. Enjoy yourself, while at the same time putting you in a “category of one.”
2. At Home
Teach Your Children. Most of us learned boring phone messages at the hands of our parents and the now ubiquitous labor-saving device: “the telephone answering machine” aka voice mail. But it’s time to bring our behavior into a new decade. (Don’t make us regret this advice! Do it with style. Do it with grace. Get the family involved and prove that together you can say something special about yourselves and leave your callers with a verbal picture that makes them smile…)
Of course, the kids have their own lines — which need to be monitored — but they too can learn that there’s a way to establish a personal style that is unique and special — starting with the phone message.
3. At Work
If you hired an agency to create “Brand You!”, they’d suggest you set it up so that every time someone touched you, they’d go away with a little extra touch of uniqueness. So, consider the thirty seconds on the phone as shared territory: part yours and part belonging to the company. Interesting problem. Most people resort to the default and fade into the woodwork. Your turn.
A little creativity, a little seduction, a little personality can give your callers a reason to smile.
So don’t be silent — make your message better than that!
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