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Because phone calls are already very high up on the "This could be important." scale. Email is usually low priority, to be answered when there is a free moment

Because phone calls are already very high up on the "This could be important." scale. Email is usually low priority, to be answered when there is a free moment. Next comes texting and IMing, to be used for organizing day-to-day things, such as where people are meeting for lunch. Above that is people stopping by in person to ask a question. The highest priority is receiving a phone call, because it means that someone wants to talk to me in particular, can't find me, and can't wait for an email response. Because all the other methods of communication have been bypassed, it must be rather important, and so I will answer it. If it is not important, I will then be annoyed.

grey-area 14y ago
If you use the phone in that way, you obviously restrict who you give the number to, because most of the world does not use the phone in this way - many people use it because they find it easier than tapping out an email and organising their thoughts, and many companies use it as a way to contact you for trivial queries. I have lots of clients who would rather just pick up a phone and call, not because it is urgent, but because it is easier for them. If I'm busy that just goes to voicemail and I'll deal with it later, because I can't control how other people use the phone. I actually have a reverse order of priority in communication, which is interesting. It'd probably be texts (seen immediately), emails (seen quickly, acted on if urgent), then phone calls as low priority (may or may not answer). This is because I dislike interruptions and many people have my number, and most of my contacts don't consider phone calls urgent only. Since for you it's a high priority interrrupt, you wouldn't be entering the number into website forms, and would not be called. You can easily fill in nothing or junk if a phone number is requested and you reserve the phone for high priority contact.

grey-area 14y ago

If you use the phone in that way, you obviously restrict who you give the number to, because most of the world does not use the phone in this way - many people use it because they find it easier than tapping out an email and organising their thoughts, and many companies use it as a way to contact you for trivial queries. I have lots of clients who would rather just pick up a phone and call, not because it is urgent, but because it is easier for them. If I'm busy that just goes to voicemail and I'll deal with it later, because I can't control how other people use the phone. I actually have a reverse order of priority in communication, which is interesting. It'd probably be texts (seen immediately), emails (seen quickly, acted on if urgent), then phone calls as low priority (may or may not answer). This is because I dislike interruptions and many people have my number, and most of my contacts don't consider phone calls urgent only. Since for you it's a high priority interrrupt, you wouldn't be entering the number into website forms, and would not be called. You can easily fill in nothing or junk if a phone number is requested and you reserve the phone for high priority contact.