Transcripts

Alice Zeitz.:
The worst kind of message to leave is, "Hi Mike, this is Alice, call me." Give them some reason, tell them why you're calling.

Communications specialist, Alice Zeitz author of the book, You Shoulda Listened to Your Mother, says before you pick up the phone to make a phone call...

Decide what your message is. Put yourself in the shoes of the person you're trying to communicate to. If you reach that person their probably in the middle of a million things and they don't have time to figure out what you want to communicate to them. So have your message. Decide in advance what you want your message to be and what you're going to say to them. If you're leaving a voice mail message say your name slowly, carefully, spell it if you have to and when you give a number where they can reach you say the number slowly. I can't tell you how many times I've had to replay the message over and over again to get all those digits right.

And when you leave a message don't just say, "Call me back."

If you want them to call you back give them an idea of when they can reach you. Or if you can't be called back ask them to leave you a message when you can reach them. Just using the same idea of understanding who you're sending the message to, what you're trying to say and make it easy for them to get your meaning.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.