miscommunication

one thing that has been bugging me lately is the plethora of communication choices. between calling and texting and emailing and facebooking and twittering.. trying to figure out who prefers what is exhausting!

i personally prefer texting and emailing. i hate phone calls, unless there is a lot of specific information that is too complicated to text or email. a lot of times i can't understand the person on the other end very well because i am in my car and there is road noise or the connection is bad. if someone leaves a voicemail, you have to dial your voicemail, enter your password, listen to the pre-recorded "you have 1 new message. first message.." all to hear "hey, it's so and so, give me a call when you have a chance". seriously? if you CALL me, PLEASE leave the reason you called in my voicemail, or it is an utter waste of time! and don't even get me started on having to sit through the 2 minutes of pre-recorded crap in order to leave someone a voicemail. does anyone EVER "press 5 to page this person"??

with my customers, i try to ask them what method they prefer. even if i hate talking on the phone, i will do so for my customers who prefer it. that is just good business. i wish the vendors i work with would take note. for example, i have 2 contractors who insist on calling me practically every day. not because there is an emergency or question, but just to "update" me, even when nothing has happened. i'm sure they think this is good customer service, but it drives me batty! i have been trying to get through to them that i am very busy and can't take 10 minutes 5 times a day to chat with them about nothing. even though i've told them i prefer texts, it doesn't seem to be sinking in. so i've resorted to ignoring their phone calls and then texting them back with "can't talk, what do you need?".

they still aren't getting the hint.