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I pay strict attention to every detail on voice mail, email and any form of communication. In part, I do this to understand more about the personality style of the person I’m communicating with in the absence of body language and other face-to-face personal style clues.
But I often wonder about executive assistants or voice mails and emails that send the wrong signal.
For example, when I place a phone call to someone at 3:30 in the afternoon and the receptionist says "I’m sorry, he’s still out for lunch" I think a better signal could have been sent.
Or when I call at 10:15 in the morning and the voice on the phone says, "Mr. Jones has not come in yet today," I wonder, is he in a meeting, or simply tardy.
Even though both of these replies might be the truth, wouldn’t it be better to simply say the person I’m trying to reach "is unavailable right now"? Do I need to know that they take extended lunches or arrive late for business?
And then there’s the out-of-office email reply on July 23 that says "I’m away on vacation until June 29th"…are they really away until next June or have they not checked their email since last month?
In Search of Excellence author, Tom Peters, said "Sometimes when I see the impact of ‘little things’ on an organization, I conclude there are no ‘little things’."
Is it time to revisit the way you and your staff handle messages?
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