6 ms·

Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

87 points by graupel 12y ago

falcolas 12y ago
I have had a soft phone at my last two jobs, and it was never used. We used Skype or Slack for our text communication, and Google Hangouts for more personal communication. And it worked perfectly well for maintaining a good flow of communication. Voice mail is, like texting, an asynchronous method of communication, but it requires more hardware and mental context switching to receive and respond to voice messages. I think the biggest hurdle to adopting something like this is going to be the different perception of voice mail (and phone calls in general) between generations.
- cissou 12y ago
  voice mail is asynchronous for the person sending it, but it's somewhat synchronous when you're on the receiving end: you cannot skip through the boring parts right to the interesting content, you have to linearly listen to the entire message. I think this is the biggest problem with voicemail. If all voicemail could turn speech into text, and it would end up in your e-mail inbox or "voice mail" app on your phone, we'd have the best of both worlds.
  - wtetzner 12y ago
    This is what I use Google Voice for. It translates the voice mail into text, and will send it in an email. It's not perfect, but it's good enough to figure out why the person called, and it does a good job capturing the phone number the person leaves.
    - cissou 12y ago
      damn, I'm not in the US but that sounds very cool. Is it US only? I'm sure that's why 97% of our generation dropped voice mail. It's just not as convenient as text.
  - drdeadringer 12y ago
    > you have to linearly listen to the entire message. I think this is the biggest problem with voicemail. I am imagining an AI layer which can skip over parts of video//voice messages for you, giving you the content you want.
    - cissou 12y ago
      the first part is to get the content (including boring parts) right every time, and alas I think speech-to-text commercial software is still not there yet for speech where the person isn't explicitly talking to be listened to by a computer (check Youtube captions for a good laugh).
rab_oof 12y ago
Voice mail is too often used by windbags to hear themselves talk instead of getting to the point. In protest of those that seek to waste your time and mine on unnecessary formalities, I purposely don't leave nor listen to any voicemail. Period. It's just too slow and infringes on other people's time, like that step uncle everyone always dreads seeing at the holidays. Instead, send a very short email with the content in the title and <EOM>. You're done. (And no, Google Voice transcription isn't good enough.)
sputknick 12y ago
In my office voicemail as just used as proof you tried to get a hold of someone. "They didn't answer my email, and when I called they didn't answer, so I left a voicemail". Once you leave a voicemail you have satisfactorily established to management that you have made every effort to reach someone. I haven't listened to a voicemail in over 3 years.
jedanbik 12y ago
Voicemail doesn't seem as "on the record" as email. I wonder, does this matter?
- jpmattia 12y ago
  > Voicemail doesn't seem as "on the record" as email. Funny, I had the opposite response. Since it was Coca Cola HQ that ditched VM, I was guessing they didn't want those records around. (Sarbanes-Oxley requires maintaining the VMs IIRC). As many point out, there's more verbosity to a VM than email/text, and that can work against you in bad situations, like an investigation.
- rondon2 12y ago
  When you to try and make someone look bad it does matter. "I didn't see bob on instant messenger, and I called him several times and I left him a voice mail. I'm not able to get my task done because I still have not heard back from Bob."
Shivetya 12y ago
Having to work with vendors a lot it would be difficult for me to give it up. I know, they could simply email me, but the reason for the voice mail was the immediacy of the situation. Likely if they leave one they will zip out an email, but those take more time to write than leaving a voice message. Now I can see the reason for ditching voice mail if this is how some people are dodging responsibility. Seen that, where people will ignore calls and pretend to not be present. Instant messengers only work if they are mandatory, where I am you can simply leave it off so again your "not there". Many email programs can block return receipts. So what problem are they really trying to solve?
- glesica 12y ago
  The problem is that voicemail is obnoxious to use and pretty pointless. The last company I worked for, I didn't even have a phone number, let alone voicemail. If someone needed something they could use an asynchronous form of communication, like email or IM (we were required to use Hipchat). The last job I had where I had voicemail I refused to check it. Not because I was dodging work, but because listening to long, rambling voicemails is time-consuming and irritating. I can skim through a rambling email very, very quickly to get the information I need. I can also search my old emails quickly and easily. Neither of those things is true for voicemail.
- marcosdumay 12y ago
  > Likely if they leave one they will zip out an email, but those take more time to write than leaving a voice message. That's exactly the problem. Voice mail has the wrong kind of contract - it takes very little effort from the demanding party, and too much effort from the demanded party.
bostonpete 12y ago
My voice mail message at work for the last few years has suggested that people contact me through email and that I tend to ignore my voicemail blinking light for weeks at a time. As a bonus (for me), I don't include my email address in the message so the only people who typically leave me messages are vendors cold-calling me.
- jghn 12y ago
  I just moved my phone so I couldn't see the light when I'm sitting at my computer. In the past I've taped an index card over it
ludicast 12y ago
Voicemail is dead, and it's because of the significant minority that leave giant messages, as well as anybody you never met who "just wanted to touch base with you". It's a shame too, because there are times and topics for which texting/emailing is an incorrect alternative. Unfortunately people don't realize the 3rd rule of Dr. Luther Waxling: "Just because it happened to you doesn't make it interesting" (at 1:24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGfc2zZ2PQI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGfc2zZ2PQI)
- TheBiv 12y ago
  Texting does have an audio option
- hobs 12y ago
  The worst part of voicemail was not even the monologues, but the fact that the important bit of information may be hidden deep within the various boring screed. The issue is that most people have no idea how to communicate and voicemail is a very painful method to be forced to endure from someone who cant get to the point. Email generally takes more effort to produce (since its not as much of a train of "thought") and its way easier to summarize as the consumer, so you can just hunt out the golden info in the pile of crap.
- gumby 12y ago
  I agree: when I leave a message it is always: my name, phone number, 5-word why I'm calling. Then occasionally: long message to save a call back, preceded by "you can just call me back and ignore the rest, or here's the summary blah blah." I'd skip leaving my phone number but I figure anyone who listens to voice mail might not have the number available :-)
deleted 12y ago
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bensherman 12y ago
Next, do email!
ghshephard 12y ago
It's interesting - but I've noticed that, without any discussion whatsoever, we stopped using Voicemail at my company somewhere in the last three years. I haven't listened to any voicemail whatsoever in about two years. A lot of my customers in the UAE and Singapore Region have switched to one of calling directly, and expecting you will always answer (Dubai), or alternatively making extensive use of Whatsapp/Whatsapp groups (Singapore). Voicemail though? Completely dead.
rocky1138 12y ago
The first thing I do when I sit down at a new job is disconnect my landline or VoIP phone and put it in a drawer. HipChat, Skype chat, Email, text, or FB message, please. Voice is dead to me. I'm looking forward to the day when you can buy a SIM card from a cell carrier which offers only data and text, no voice call support. Also, am I the only one that is mildly disappointed that Coke's headquarters isn't shaped like a huge Coke can?
- ryanweal 12y ago
  > I'm looking forward to the day when you can buy a SIM card from a cell carrier which offers only data and text, no voice call support. You can get these now. Get an LTE USB stick sim and add a $10 text package to it. You can add voice as well, but why bother.
  - freehunter 12y ago
    T Mobile actually sells service for $30/mo that includes unlimited data and texting with only 100 minutes a month of voice. That service is basically designed for data only.
    - rocky1138 12y ago
      It's not the same. If someone calls it, I assume it still goes to some sort of voicemail and/or rings?
      - icelancer 12y ago
        I have that plan and occasionally I block all calls. You can do it on Android like this: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-block-phone-calls-on-your-android-smartphone/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-block-phone-calls...
- ihsw 12y ago
  > Also, am I the only one that is mildly disappointed that Coke's headquarters isn't shaped like a huge Coke can? This is absolutely ridiculous. Do you expect Subway's headquarters to be shaped like a cold-cut sandwich? In all seriousness, The Coca-Cola Company produces and distributes only their syrup concentrate to franchisees, whom bottle it for sale. Yes they have a subsidiary which oversees North American production and distribution of beverages, however that is the only one they own and operate. And, with that in mind, their headquarters should resemble a large bag of goo instead of their trademark bottles.
mschip 12y ago
Things like this is what leads to billion dollar valuations for companies like Slack. Corporate communication is finally evolving from email and voicemail.
thiagoperes 12y ago
I lived in the US and currently in Brazil, so it's great to see two different aspects of the "voice mail culture". Before cell phones were introduced here, almost every one in middle class had someone bring them an answering machine. When cell phones started showing up, thou, people didn't use voice mails that much. Today, when you wanna talk to someone and they're not available, you just leave a text or a WhatsApp message. If it's not that important, they'll just see their missed calls and call you back. This article made me remember that when I started working in the US, my boss got mad many times because I NEVER checked my voice mails so I missed meetings etc. Haha!
- stronglikedan 12y ago
  > my boss got mad many times because I NEVER checked my voice mails I had that problem too. Now, the company phone system emails voice messages left on voice mail. It's very effective, and I never miss a voice message now. I like to think they did that because of me (but probably not).
- fiatmoney 12y ago
  I believe part of it is that in Brazil, at least for cell phones, only the caller pays, not the receiver of the call as well (as is the case in the US). It's pretty common to leave a short message of the form "call me back", or just a missed call - a longer message wastes your minutes.
xngzng 12y ago
Is voice mail recording device at home still popular in US? Often seen in US movies but such device has never caught on in Singapore/Malaysia.
- jdhawk 12y ago
  Only for those that are SMS challenged (grandmothers). Now people are more conditioned to try someones mobile number send a SMS if there is no answer. Only voicemails most people get are corporations calling for whatever reason. Land lines have gone away in the younger demographics, unless you have children and need a home phone line for emergency reasons.
- drdeadringer 12y ago
  There are telephones available which have voicemail integrated in with the rest of it, and if you go VOIP than voicemail tends to be accessible online.
- ghaff 12y ago
  I suspect they're increasingly rare. Even for those who want voicemail, it's increasingly bundled as part of voice plans rather than requiring a dedicated voicemail device at the receiving end.
- gumby 12y ago
  I assume they are used in movies simply as a plot device. I haven't seen one in almost 20 years.
euroclydon 12y ago
Here's what I want to know: We have Cisco phones, and when I get a VM, the phone's message light comes on. I also get an email with the MP3. If I delete that email without opening it, the message light goes off on the phone within a few seconds. We use gmail for our company email. How on earth do they do that???
- MyDogHasFleas 12y ago
  With SOFTWARE. It's the latest thing.
valarauca1 12y ago
In 2012 when I purchased my own phone I declined to set up a voice mail account. If you call and it rings out, the caller is informed, "This customer has not created a voice mail account." I highly suggest you do the same. The only person who've noticed so far is my mother.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
elecboy 12y ago
Since my company has a PBX I recently change the settings that all voice mails left on the phones are emailed to them, directly, that saves space in the phone server. I rarely listen to the VM I get, I prefer calling first, if no answer then I listen to them.
- jessaustin 12y ago
  I rarely listen to the VM I get, I prefer calling first... My goodness, that's annoying. b^) You're certainly not the only one. At least once a week I leave someone a several-minute voicemail with specific detailed information, questions, or instructions. Then ten minutes later they call back, "what did you want?" MFW... Keep in mind, these are people whom I would gladly send an email, if they would read their email more than occasionally.
IgorPartola 12y ago
I think this makes a lot of sense for a business. Sadly, I still get occasional but important personal communication via phone calls and voicemail, where otherwise I would not be able to get it. Specifiaclly, doctor's offices don't use SMS or email. Their alternative is snail mail. Another source is random one offs such as the oil delivery guy confirming my delivery, or a relative trying to get directions to my house in realtime. I get very few voicemails, but I don't see a point in disabling this feature entirely, in on personal line.
- _dark_matter_ 12y ago
  All of our doctors contact us through email. I think they use Epic, and we get all of our test results, appointment reminders, etc. there. With health care regulations forcing electronic records, we'll probably see more of this.
  - patio11 12y ago
    It's tricky with HIPAA, given that emailing almost anything interesting is a violation, since they can't control whether your email provider discloses it or not. The right way to do it is to email people and inform them that a secure system has Very Important Information for them and that they should sign in using pre-arranged credentials to check it. Even that email can be a HIPAA violation if you do it wrong -- for example, "Hiya Jane Smith, Dr. Foo OBGYN has important information for you" has been held to be a violation since Foo should have reasonably anticipated that some patients would be living with family and sharing email with them and disclosing a non-minor's pregnancy/etc to their parents without their consent is a per se violation. Ditto putting similar information into voicemails / SMSes / etc. Technical violations of the rules are rampant and enforcement actions are comparatively rare, particularly at smaller medical providers.
    - r00fus 12y ago
      Well that's one nuance - another against voicemail for Doctors is that if you truly have an emergency, then it's possible practitioners are liable if you suffer while leaving a voicemail (or as a result of no one listening to that voicemail in time). Consequently, none of my doctors have a voicemail, so I'm forced to use their app to communicate with them, even if I just want a "you and/or kids are probably ok, come in if things get worse" confirmation. Very few have an "answering service" that has a real person transcribe and page the doctor (and advise you call 911 if it sounds like an emergency) but I imagine this is too expensive for most.
debacle 12y ago
It's too bad. Voicemail to email (with attempted transcription) is awesome usability for the message sender and not bad for the receiver.
mcculley 12y ago
I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those that hate texting (older, in general). I enjoy being reachable by people (family, clients, employees, etc.) and I don't want them to have an obstacle to sending me a message. Certainly voicemail is an annoyance but it's also often the best option. Just last night I was driving to the hospital to visit a friend and called another friend to let him know the status of my sick friend. I left a voicemail and it was the best solution. I've noticed that the texting only generation seems to have anxiety about making or receiving phone calls and the real-time conversation that requires. I think some of the voicemail hate is just a reaction to that discomfort.
- encoderer 12y ago
  Anxiety? Maybe. But possibly just annoyance?
  - mcculley 12y ago
    I've definitely encountered both. Having someone fail to pick up the phone to resolve an issue is frustrating. Sometimes that's the best solution.
  - jessaustin 12y ago
    Sure, one could merely be annoyed by having to speak in real-time with people with whom one wants or needs to communicate somehow. But others are likely to find that annoyance strange, so that such a preference (or the exposure of it) is likely to also be a source of anxiety.
  - wpietri 12y ago
    I'm sure it's both. For me, I've never liked how interruptive and demanding phone calls are. I would never barge into somebody's home and immediately insist on attention no matter what they were doing. But ringing phones are like that. So I definitely notice some politeness-related anxiety when I call people. I also notice a little bit of stage fright with both phone calls and voicemails. Phones rob you of almost all the in-person feedback that lets you judge reaction. And they also don't allow the sort of self-checking and self-editing that text messages and email do. Once you say something dumb or get caught in an awkward pause, it's just out there. Neither really bothers me, I happily call people and leave voicemails as needed. But I definitely notice the feelings.
gmoore 12y ago
Why wouldn't you want to give your customers every opportunity available to get in touch with you?
- justincormack 12y ago
  Do you have a fax machine and a telex?
UhUhUhUh 12y ago
Any medium will create pseudo-communication. How many times did I get POed by endless email exchanges (particularly the "Thank you" kind). So the problem is pseudo-communication not the medium. I suspect that CC thing has more to do with time management than technology. The 100K/year mentioned probably refers to hardware and maintenance. Now if you factor in the wasted minutes you might get a different number.
- tracker1 12y ago
  I actually find email exchanges far worse than voicemails.... I use google voice, it's in one interface, and voicemails are few enough... 5-6 a day. Emails, I see many... Some I bucket off and group delete daily.. others I have to spend half an hour a day to sift through... it's a pain. Especially reply chains... Though I'd just as soon use IRC, getting people to use slack hasn't been so bad (there are hipchat and others)... I'm not a huge fan of IM either though.
dankohn1 12y ago
I recommend using Google Voice as your voicemail service, in that it converts voicemails to text messages. They're often garbled text messages, but it's enough context to decide how to respond.
- jotux 12y ago
  It also makes dealing with voicemail a great deal better. I despise voicemail at my work because I have to call a number, listen to the message and clear it to make my phone stop blinking. On my cell phone it just pops up as a text message, I can read most of it to get the gist and clear the notification easily.
jimbobimbo 12y ago
I used to work at a company that had an office phone system with desk phones and all. To this day I consider that kind of system a most confusing piece of technology I tried to use.
- justincormack 12y ago
  Not yet worked anywhere that doesnt... although I almost never use said phones.
MyDogHasFleas 12y ago
I'm old enough that I've lived through these stages: 1) There were no answering machines and no cordless phones, much less mobile. If you called someone at home, and they didn't answer, you just tried later. If you called someone at a business, everyone had a secretary who could pick up if they didn't answer. She (and it was always "she") would write your message on a message slip (they were generally pink) and put it on the person's desk. Or, for smaller businesses, you called the main number, and the operator would connect you, and take a message if no answer. 2) Home answering machines happened. They used cassette tapes, and you could rewind and replay your messages. The outgoing greeting was on a second tape. When you got home, or if you were screening your calls, you'd see a blinking light indicating "new message", then hit buttons to rewind and play your messages. When the tape got full you could put in a new tape or write over the old messages. For businesses, phone systems became smarter and could take voicemail, but this was expensive, many businesses still used the old people-intensive way for messages, and many businesses preferred this because customers liked talking to a real person to leave a message. 3) Mobile phones with SMS became available to consumers. (We are into the 90s now). I don't recall this being especially popular at first, most people still left voicemails, even on mobile phones. But SMS became more and more used over the next decade plus (before smartphones when they exploded in popularity). 4) Fast forward to today. People born after 1980 or so, I find, really don't do voicemail at all, text messaging is the thing. If you leave them a voicemail, it doesn't get listened to. The best you can expect is a callback or a text message because they saw you called, but the usual response is nothing. For businesses, some form of instant messaging (IM) is prevalent inside the company. The IM might say "Hey do you have a minute to talk OTP?" but no one just calls someone else cold, much less leaves a voicemail and expects a response. IMO stage (1) actually worked fine, and now that we are at stage (4) that works fine too (as long as you don't pretend voicemail is a thing and use other means of communication). The intermediate stages were awkward at best. I think Coca-Cola's action makes a ton of sense for any company. Maybe it was fear of legal discovery that prompted it, maybe it was what they said (streamlining operations), but it is a good thing, IMO.
SixSigma 12y ago
I think the main problem with voicemail is that, for the most part, it is disconnected from the Internet. We run Asterisk, when I get a voicemail it is as an mp3 in my email. I know the caller ID, when it was left and how long it is before I choose to listen to it. It is totally useful. It has always boggled me that I can't choose "send audio message" from my smart phone's contacts without a third party app - a feature that I use on watsapp regularly.
protomyth 12y ago
Corporate voice mail is a nightmare with the press 7 and 9 systems. If it was like a modern smartphone (e.g. Visual Voicemail) then it would be ok. At this point, I am trying to figure out what to replace the college's current Nortel[1] system. I think the mp3 e-mail voice mail would probably make people a bit happier. 1) why yes, the words "current" and "Nortel" should never be associated, but that's where we are
misingnoglic 12y ago
At my internship this summer I actually had a sticky note on top of my phone to tell me what buttons to press in order to listen to my voicemail. It was like 3 different menus you had to go through, and then you had to listen to all the voicemail metadata (including the second that the voicemail was sent) just to listen to the 10 second voicemail of your boss telling you to call her back. If coke was anything like this place, they made a good decision.
- tracker1 12y ago
  Just because the interface is bad, doesn't mean the concept is bad... I've used Google Voice since it was Grand Central, love it... I never call in or press buttons... it's an app on my phone, and a website ui I can use... easy peasy.
tracker1 12y ago
So, does this mean that everyone's personal phone will now be inundated with SMS messages from work at all hours? Will all of their internal extensions now have an SMS endpoint to receive text messages? I know so many people that will only text and not hold an actual voice conversation. It's really irritating to say the least. In general if it's a short "I'm running late, eta 20 min" or "heading to the store, let me know if you need anything" I'll text (the store list is even better that way, it's written down... But anything more than that and a one-two minute conversation is better. I've been a rabbid google voice (formerly grand central) user for several years now.. I love the voicemail transcription. The only annoyance is I have to "press 1" to answer, and that's harder to do while driving... no idea why it isn't "press one, or say 'answer' to answer". Just the same, getting rid of it altogether is ridiculous. Having GV-like integration with their desktop and phone platforms would have been a better move all around. My two issues come down to.. A) Keeping work time and personal time separated.. and B) From the outside how are you supposed to reach anyone?

87 points by graupel 12y ago

I have had a soft phone at my last two jobs, and it was never used. We used Skype or Slack for our text communication, and Google Hangouts for more personal communication. And it worked perfectly well for maintaining a good flow of communication. Voice mail is, like texting, an asynchronous method of communication, but it requires more hardware and mental context switching to receive and respond to voice messages. I think the biggest hurdle to adopting something like this is going to be the different perception of voice mail (and phone calls in general) between generations.

cissou 12y ago
voice mail is asynchronous for the person sending it, but it's somewhat synchronous when you're on the receiving end: you cannot skip through the boring parts right to the interesting content, you have to linearly listen to the entire message. I think this is the biggest problem with voicemail. If all voicemail could turn speech into text, and it would end up in your e-mail inbox or "voice mail" app on your phone, we'd have the best of both worlds.
- wtetzner 12y ago
  This is what I use Google Voice for. It translates the voice mail into text, and will send it in an email. It's not perfect, but it's good enough to figure out why the person called, and it does a good job capturing the phone number the person leaves.
  - cissou 12y ago
    damn, I'm not in the US but that sounds very cool. Is it US only? I'm sure that's why 97% of our generation dropped voice mail. It's just not as convenient as text.
- drdeadringer 12y ago
  > you have to linearly listen to the entire message. I think this is the biggest problem with voicemail. I am imagining an AI layer which can skip over parts of video//voice messages for you, giving you the content you want.
  - cissou 12y ago
    the first part is to get the content (including boring parts) right every time, and alas I think speech-to-text commercial software is still not there yet for speech where the person isn't explicitly talking to be listened to by a computer (check Youtube captions for a good laugh).

rab_oof 12y ago

Voice mail is too often used by windbags to hear themselves talk instead of getting to the point. In protest of those that seek to waste your time and mine on unnecessary formalities, I purposely don't leave nor listen to any voicemail. Period. It's just too slow and infringes on other people's time, like that step uncle everyone always dreads seeing at the holidays. Instead, send a very short email with the content in the title and <EOM>. You're done. (And no, Google Voice transcription isn't good enough.)

sputknick 12y ago

In my office voicemail as just used as proof you tried to get a hold of someone. "They didn't answer my email, and when I called they didn't answer, so I left a voicemail". Once you leave a voicemail you have satisfactorily established to management that you have made every effort to reach someone. I haven't listened to a voicemail in over 3 years.

jedanbik 12y ago

Voicemail doesn't seem as "on the record" as email. I wonder, does this matter?

jpmattia 12y ago
> Voicemail doesn't seem as "on the record" as email. Funny, I had the opposite response. Since it was Coca Cola HQ that ditched VM, I was guessing they didn't want those records around. (Sarbanes-Oxley requires maintaining the VMs IIRC). As many point out, there's more verbosity to a VM than email/text, and that can work against you in bad situations, like an investigation.
rondon2 12y ago
When you to try and make someone look bad it does matter. "I didn't see bob on instant messenger, and I called him several times and I left him a voice mail. I'm not able to get my task done because I still have not heard back from Bob."

Shivetya 12y ago

Having to work with vendors a lot it would be difficult for me to give it up. I know, they could simply email me, but the reason for the voice mail was the immediacy of the situation. Likely if they leave one they will zip out an email, but those take more time to write than leaving a voice message. Now I can see the reason for ditching voice mail if this is how some people are dodging responsibility. Seen that, where people will ignore calls and pretend to not be present. Instant messengers only work if they are mandatory, where I am you can simply leave it off so again your "not there". Many email programs can block return receipts. So what problem are they really trying to solve?

glesica 12y ago
The problem is that voicemail is obnoxious to use and pretty pointless. The last company I worked for, I didn't even have a phone number, let alone voicemail. If someone needed something they could use an asynchronous form of communication, like email or IM (we were required to use Hipchat). The last job I had where I had voicemail I refused to check it. Not because I was dodging work, but because listening to long, rambling voicemails is time-consuming and irritating. I can skim through a rambling email very, very quickly to get the information I need. I can also search my old emails quickly and easily. Neither of those things is true for voicemail.
marcosdumay 12y ago
> Likely if they leave one they will zip out an email, but those take more time to write than leaving a voice message. That's exactly the problem. Voice mail has the wrong kind of contract - it takes very little effort from the demanding party, and too much effort from the demanded party.

bostonpete 12y ago

My voice mail message at work for the last few years has suggested that people contact me through email and that I tend to ignore my voicemail blinking light for weeks at a time. As a bonus (for me), I don't include my email address in the message so the only people who typically leave me messages are vendors cold-calling me.

jghn 12y ago
I just moved my phone so I couldn't see the light when I'm sitting at my computer. In the past I've taped an index card over it

ludicast 12y ago

Voicemail is dead, and it's because of the significant minority that leave giant messages, as well as anybody you never met who "just wanted to touch base with you". It's a shame too, because there are times and topics for which texting/emailing is an incorrect alternative. Unfortunately people don't realize the 3rd rule of Dr. Luther Waxling: "Just because it happened to you doesn't make it interesting" (at 1:24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGfc2zZ2PQI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGfc2zZ2PQI)

TheBiv 12y ago
Texting does have an audio option
hobs 12y ago
The worst part of voicemail was not even the monologues, but the fact that the important bit of information may be hidden deep within the various boring screed. The issue is that most people have no idea how to communicate and voicemail is a very painful method to be forced to endure from someone who cant get to the point. Email generally takes more effort to produce (since its not as much of a train of "thought") and its way easier to summarize as the consumer, so you can just hunt out the golden info in the pile of crap.
gumby 12y ago
I agree: when I leave a message it is always: my name, phone number, 5-word why I'm calling. Then occasionally: long message to save a call back, preceded by "you can just call me back and ignore the rest, or here's the summary blah blah." I'd skip leaving my phone number but I figure anyone who listens to voice mail might not have the number available :-)

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bensherman 12y ago

Next, do email!

ghshephard 12y ago

It's interesting - but I've noticed that, without any discussion whatsoever, we stopped using Voicemail at my company somewhere in the last three years. I haven't listened to any voicemail whatsoever in about two years. A lot of my customers in the UAE and Singapore Region have switched to one of calling directly, and expecting you will always answer (Dubai), or alternatively making extensive use of Whatsapp/Whatsapp groups (Singapore). Voicemail though? Completely dead.

rocky1138 12y ago

The first thing I do when I sit down at a new job is disconnect my landline or VoIP phone and put it in a drawer. HipChat, Skype chat, Email, text, or FB message, please. Voice is dead to me. I'm looking forward to the day when you can buy a SIM card from a cell carrier which offers only data and text, no voice call support. Also, am I the only one that is mildly disappointed that Coke's headquarters isn't shaped like a huge Coke can?

ryanweal 12y ago
> I'm looking forward to the day when you can buy a SIM card from a cell carrier which offers only data and text, no voice call support. You can get these now. Get an LTE USB stick sim and add a $10 text package to it. You can add voice as well, but why bother.
- freehunter 12y ago
  T Mobile actually sells service for $30/mo that includes unlimited data and texting with only 100 minutes a month of voice. That service is basically designed for data only.
  - rocky1138 12y ago
    It's not the same. If someone calls it, I assume it still goes to some sort of voicemail and/or rings?
    - icelancer 12y ago
      I have that plan and occasionally I block all calls. You can do it on Android like this: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-block-phone-calls-on-your-android-smartphone/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-block-phone-calls...
ihsw 12y ago
> Also, am I the only one that is mildly disappointed that Coke's headquarters isn't shaped like a huge Coke can? This is absolutely ridiculous. Do you expect Subway's headquarters to be shaped like a cold-cut sandwich? In all seriousness, The Coca-Cola Company produces and distributes only their syrup concentrate to franchisees, whom bottle it for sale. Yes they have a subsidiary which oversees North American production and distribution of beverages, however that is the only one they own and operate. And, with that in mind, their headquarters should resemble a large bag of goo instead of their trademark bottles.

mschip 12y ago

Things like this is what leads to billion dollar valuations for companies like Slack. Corporate communication is finally evolving from email and voicemail.

thiagoperes 12y ago

I lived in the US and currently in Brazil, so it's great to see two different aspects of the "voice mail culture". Before cell phones were introduced here, almost every one in middle class had someone bring them an answering machine. When cell phones started showing up, thou, people didn't use voice mails that much. Today, when you wanna talk to someone and they're not available, you just leave a text or a WhatsApp message. If it's not that important, they'll just see their missed calls and call you back. This article made me remember that when I started working in the US, my boss got mad many times because I NEVER checked my voice mails so I missed meetings etc. Haha!

stronglikedan 12y ago
> my boss got mad many times because I NEVER checked my voice mails I had that problem too. Now, the company phone system emails voice messages left on voice mail. It's very effective, and I never miss a voice message now. I like to think they did that because of me (but probably not).
fiatmoney 12y ago
I believe part of it is that in Brazil, at least for cell phones, only the caller pays, not the receiver of the call as well (as is the case in the US). It's pretty common to leave a short message of the form "call me back", or just a missed call - a longer message wastes your minutes.

xngzng 12y ago

Is voice mail recording device at home still popular in US? Often seen in US movies but such device has never caught on in Singapore/Malaysia.

jdhawk 12y ago
Only for those that are SMS challenged (grandmothers). Now people are more conditioned to try someones mobile number send a SMS if there is no answer. Only voicemails most people get are corporations calling for whatever reason. Land lines have gone away in the younger demographics, unless you have children and need a home phone line for emergency reasons.
drdeadringer 12y ago
There are telephones available which have voicemail integrated in with the rest of it, and if you go VOIP than voicemail tends to be accessible online.
ghaff 12y ago
I suspect they're increasingly rare. Even for those who want voicemail, it's increasingly bundled as part of voice plans rather than requiring a dedicated voicemail device at the receiving end.
gumby 12y ago
I assume they are used in movies simply as a plot device. I haven't seen one in almost 20 years.

euroclydon 12y ago

Here's what I want to know: We have Cisco phones, and when I get a VM, the phone's message light comes on. I also get an email with the MP3. If I delete that email without opening it, the message light goes off on the phone within a few seconds. We use gmail for our company email. How on earth do they do that???

MyDogHasFleas 12y ago
With SOFTWARE. It's the latest thing.

valarauca1 12y ago

In 2012 when I purchased my own phone I declined to set up a voice mail account. If you call and it rings out, the caller is informed, "This customer has not created a voice mail account." I highly suggest you do the same. The only person who've noticed so far is my mother.

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elecboy 12y ago

Since my company has a PBX I recently change the settings that all voice mails left on the phones are emailed to them, directly, that saves space in the phone server. I rarely listen to the VM I get, I prefer calling first, if no answer then I listen to them.

jessaustin 12y ago
I rarely listen to the VM I get, I prefer calling first... My goodness, that's annoying. b^) You're certainly not the only one. At least once a week I leave someone a several-minute voicemail with specific detailed information, questions, or instructions. Then ten minutes later they call back, "what did you want?" MFW... Keep in mind, these are people whom I would gladly send an email, if they would read their email more than occasionally.

IgorPartola 12y ago

I think this makes a lot of sense for a business. Sadly, I still get occasional but important personal communication via phone calls and voicemail, where otherwise I would not be able to get it. Specifiaclly, doctor's offices don't use SMS or email. Their alternative is snail mail. Another source is random one offs such as the oil delivery guy confirming my delivery, or a relative trying to get directions to my house in realtime. I get very few voicemails, but I don't see a point in disabling this feature entirely, in on personal line.

_dark_matter_ 12y ago
All of our doctors contact us through email. I think they use Epic, and we get all of our test results, appointment reminders, etc. there. With health care regulations forcing electronic records, we'll probably see more of this.
- patio11 12y ago
  It's tricky with HIPAA, given that emailing almost anything interesting is a violation, since they can't control whether your email provider discloses it or not. The right way to do it is to email people and inform them that a secure system has Very Important Information for them and that they should sign in using pre-arranged credentials to check it. Even that email can be a HIPAA violation if you do it wrong -- for example, "Hiya Jane Smith, Dr. Foo OBGYN has important information for you" has been held to be a violation since Foo should have reasonably anticipated that some patients would be living with family and sharing email with them and disclosing a non-minor's pregnancy/etc to their parents without their consent is a per se violation. Ditto putting similar information into voicemails / SMSes / etc. Technical violations of the rules are rampant and enforcement actions are comparatively rare, particularly at smaller medical providers.
  - r00fus 12y ago
    Well that's one nuance - another against voicemail for Doctors is that if you truly have an emergency, then it's possible practitioners are liable if you suffer while leaving a voicemail (or as a result of no one listening to that voicemail in time). Consequently, none of my doctors have a voicemail, so I'm forced to use their app to communicate with them, even if I just want a "you and/or kids are probably ok, come in if things get worse" confirmation. Very few have an "answering service" that has a real person transcribe and page the doctor (and advise you call 911 if it sounds like an emergency) but I imagine this is too expensive for most.

debacle 12y ago

It's too bad. Voicemail to email (with attempted transcription) is awesome usability for the message sender and not bad for the receiver.

mcculley 12y ago

I'm a bit bemused by all of the voicemail hate on here. I'm 42, so I feel I'm in the area between those that hate phone calls (younger, in general) and those that hate texting (older, in general). I enjoy being reachable by people (family, clients, employees, etc.) and I don't want them to have an obstacle to sending me a message. Certainly voicemail is an annoyance but it's also often the best option. Just last night I was driving to the hospital to visit a friend and called another friend to let him know the status of my sick friend. I left a voicemail and it was the best solution. I've noticed that the texting only generation seems to have anxiety about making or receiving phone calls and the real-time conversation that requires. I think some of the voicemail hate is just a reaction to that discomfort.

encoderer 12y ago
Anxiety? Maybe. But possibly just annoyance?
- mcculley 12y ago
  I've definitely encountered both. Having someone fail to pick up the phone to resolve an issue is frustrating. Sometimes that's the best solution.
- jessaustin 12y ago
  Sure, one could merely be annoyed by having to speak in real-time with people with whom one wants or needs to communicate somehow. But others are likely to find that annoyance strange, so that such a preference (or the exposure of it) is likely to also be a source of anxiety.
- wpietri 12y ago
  I'm sure it's both. For me, I've never liked how interruptive and demanding phone calls are. I would never barge into somebody's home and immediately insist on attention no matter what they were doing. But ringing phones are like that. So I definitely notice some politeness-related anxiety when I call people. I also notice a little bit of stage fright with both phone calls and voicemails. Phones rob you of almost all the in-person feedback that lets you judge reaction. And they also don't allow the sort of self-checking and self-editing that text messages and email do. Once you say something dumb or get caught in an awkward pause, it's just out there. Neither really bothers me, I happily call people and leave voicemails as needed. But I definitely notice the feelings.

gmoore 12y ago

Why wouldn't you want to give your customers every opportunity available to get in touch with you?

justincormack 12y ago
Do you have a fax machine and a telex?

UhUhUhUh 12y ago

Any medium will create pseudo-communication. How many times did I get POed by endless email exchanges (particularly the "Thank you" kind). So the problem is pseudo-communication not the medium. I suspect that CC thing has more to do with time management than technology. The 100K/year mentioned probably refers to hardware and maintenance. Now if you factor in the wasted minutes you might get a different number.

tracker1 12y ago
I actually find email exchanges far worse than voicemails.... I use google voice, it's in one interface, and voicemails are few enough... 5-6 a day. Emails, I see many... Some I bucket off and group delete daily.. others I have to spend half an hour a day to sift through... it's a pain. Especially reply chains... Though I'd just as soon use IRC, getting people to use slack hasn't been so bad (there are hipchat and others)... I'm not a huge fan of IM either though.

dankohn1 12y ago

I recommend using Google Voice as your voicemail service, in that it converts voicemails to text messages. They're often garbled text messages, but it's enough context to decide how to respond.

jotux 12y ago
It also makes dealing with voicemail a great deal better. I despise voicemail at my work because I have to call a number, listen to the message and clear it to make my phone stop blinking. On my cell phone it just pops up as a text message, I can read most of it to get the gist and clear the notification easily.

jimbobimbo 12y ago

I used to work at a company that had an office phone system with desk phones and all. To this day I consider that kind of system a most confusing piece of technology I tried to use.

justincormack 12y ago
Not yet worked anywhere that doesnt... although I almost never use said phones.

MyDogHasFleas 12y ago

I'm old enough that I've lived through these stages: 1) There were no answering machines and no cordless phones, much less mobile. If you called someone at home, and they didn't answer, you just tried later. If you called someone at a business, everyone had a secretary who could pick up if they didn't answer. She (and it was always "she") would write your message on a message slip (they were generally pink) and put it on the person's desk. Or, for smaller businesses, you called the main number, and the operator would connect you, and take a message if no answer. 2) Home answering machines happened. They used cassette tapes, and you could rewind and replay your messages. The outgoing greeting was on a second tape. When you got home, or if you were screening your calls, you'd see a blinking light indicating "new message", then hit buttons to rewind and play your messages. When the tape got full you could put in a new tape or write over the old messages. For businesses, phone systems became smarter and could take voicemail, but this was expensive, many businesses still used the old people-intensive way for messages, and many businesses preferred this because customers liked talking to a real person to leave a message. 3) Mobile phones with SMS became available to consumers. (We are into the 90s now). I don't recall this being especially popular at first, most people still left voicemails, even on mobile phones. But SMS became more and more used over the next decade plus (before smartphones when they exploded in popularity). 4) Fast forward to today. People born after 1980 or so, I find, really don't do voicemail at all, text messaging is the thing. If you leave them a voicemail, it doesn't get listened to. The best you can expect is a callback or a text message because they saw you called, but the usual response is nothing. For businesses, some form of instant messaging (IM) is prevalent inside the company. The IM might say "Hey do you have a minute to talk OTP?" but no one just calls someone else cold, much less leaves a voicemail and expects a response. IMO stage (1) actually worked fine, and now that we are at stage (4) that works fine too (as long as you don't pretend voicemail is a thing and use other means of communication). The intermediate stages were awkward at best. I think Coca-Cola's action makes a ton of sense for any company. Maybe it was fear of legal discovery that prompted it, maybe it was what they said (streamlining operations), but it is a good thing, IMO.

SixSigma 12y ago

I think the main problem with voicemail is that, for the most part, it is disconnected from the Internet. We run Asterisk, when I get a voicemail it is as an mp3 in my email. I know the caller ID, when it was left and how long it is before I choose to listen to it. It is totally useful. It has always boggled me that I can't choose "send audio message" from my smart phone's contacts without a third party app - a feature that I use on watsapp regularly.

protomyth 12y ago

Corporate voice mail is a nightmare with the press 7 and 9 systems. If it was like a modern smartphone (e.g. Visual Voicemail) then it would be ok. At this point, I am trying to figure out what to replace the college's current Nortel[1] system. I think the mp3 e-mail voice mail would probably make people a bit happier. 1) why yes, the words "current" and "Nortel" should never be associated, but that's where we are

misingnoglic 12y ago

At my internship this summer I actually had a sticky note on top of my phone to tell me what buttons to press in order to listen to my voicemail. It was like 3 different menus you had to go through, and then you had to listen to all the voicemail metadata (including the second that the voicemail was sent) just to listen to the 10 second voicemail of your boss telling you to call her back. If coke was anything like this place, they made a good decision.

tracker1 12y ago
Just because the interface is bad, doesn't mean the concept is bad... I've used Google Voice since it was Grand Central, love it... I never call in or press buttons... it's an app on my phone, and a website ui I can use... easy peasy.

tracker1 12y ago

So, does this mean that everyone's personal phone will now be inundated with SMS messages from work at all hours? Will all of their internal extensions now have an SMS endpoint to receive text messages? I know so many people that will only text and not hold an actual voice conversation. It's really irritating to say the least. In general if it's a short "I'm running late, eta 20 min" or "heading to the store, let me know if you need anything" I'll text (the store list is even better that way, it's written down... But anything more than that and a one-two minute conversation is better. I've been a rabbid google voice (formerly grand central) user for several years now.. I love the voicemail transcription. The only annoyance is I have to "press 1" to answer, and that's harder to do while driving... no idea why it isn't "press one, or say 'answer' to answer". Just the same, getting rid of it altogether is ridiculous. Having GV-like integration with their desktop and phone platforms would have been a better move all around. My two issues come down to.. A) Keeping work time and personal time separated.. and B) From the outside how are you supposed to reach anyone?