“I Have a Question For You…Call Me Back.”

    “I have a question for you…call me back.”  I usually receive longer variations of this voice message.  Recently it was: “I know you have a lot of experience and are knowledgeable…I have a very important question that I think you could help with…call me back.”

    Congratulations.  You have discovered my number one pet peeve.  OK, maybe it is not my number one pet peeve.  Admittedly, I do have several (in case my family or friends are reading this, many), but this is way up high on the list.  Think what happened.  It isn’t complicated.  The caller phoned me and I did not answer so they were directed to my voice mail.  What could this mean?  The most frequent explanation is that I was on the phone speaking with someone else at the very moment that the caller phoned.I was busy.  If the caller had left a message indicating some details of what they wanted I would usually call them back promptly when I had the time to give the caller my undivided attention.  If their question required a bit of research I would have looked up the information required to answer their question or to discuss their situation intelligently and would have called them back.

    Suppose I had responded to the “call me back” message and was directed to the caller’s voice mail.  What should my message have been?  “I am returning your call but don’t have any idea why you called…call me back.”?  How many rounds of this should I be willing to play?  This seems a great waste of time.

    There are other reasons why you might have been directed to my voice mail when you called.  I never answer calls from blocked or restricted numbers.  If you are unable or unwilling to identify yourself to me before I pick up the call I am simply not interested unless you leave some explanation for your call.  I rarely answer calls from people who are not identified by my caller ID.  I am often on the phone for long periods and I do discriminate.  I prefer to answer calls from people I know, especially if they are business partners and I suspect the call may pertain to a current project or, even better, a new one.  If I have never spoken to you by phone [(indicated by the fact that your number is not identified) I know there are other possible reasons—this could be a new phone number for you or simply another phone] I will often see if you are someone who will leave a detailed message.  This is a way that I check to see if we might be compatible in business.  If we are, if you left a message I will then link your number to your name and this will not  be the reason I fail to answer the next time.  (I have addressed this in previous blog entries: I Want To Say Yes But It Is Much Easier To Say No and It Is Easy But It Is A Test.)

    There is another possible reason why you were directed to my voice mail.  I may not wish to speak with you.  Most of the time this is a temporary situation—I don’t wish to speak with you right now.  Even if I am not speaking with someone else, I may have recently placed a call related to a pressing matter and am expecting a return call in the near future.  Sometimes, I am fairly certain I know what you are calling about and I have not yet gathered the information needed to address your concern or have not yet come to a decision regarding the situation you are calling about.  I will be calling you soon.

    If you are someone who regularly leaves messages asking me to “call you back” without leaving details and, perhaps, you have discovered a few more of my pet peeves, I may not wish to speak with you because I have determined you are someone with whom I am simply not compatible.  That’s alright.  We’ll both survive but I may not be calling you back.  I don’t always find enough time in the day to return all the calls I receive and I simply must prioritize in order to serve my partners, customers, and colleagues at the high level which they deserve and that I insist upon.