Voice Notes and Voicemail Etiquette

[Glassman]

How should you respond to a voice note (the ones on WhatsApp)?

I used to think it was a bit odd, but after an increase in business voice notes, messages from football coaches and parents (when I used to run a team) and now even a few pals, I have adjusted to this way of exchange. But how should you respond? In the same way? When someone sends me a voice note I respond by tapping out a message, but is that not the way? My few attempts at sending voice notes on WA were responded to in normal typed message format which also didn't feel right, so what's the etiquette? The same question, although it's more of a rant, for voicemail.

Why can't some people leave a message when you don't answer the call? I get that sometimes you just need to speak and it may not be that urgent so you'll dump the call before voicemail starts recording, but there are people who will ring and when there's no answer they'll ring again withing seconds sometimes repeating this twice, three times or even four... and then when I stop what I'm doing thinking it might be someone from the school to do with the kids or something equally as urgent, it'll be someone whose opening salvo will be to ask how much a windscreen replacement costs. Why not leave a message at the prompt when there's no answer? My outgoing message is very polite and it states that I WILL call back as soon as I am able to. Some people will even say they don't like leaving voicemail (but they don't see how annoying it can be to call someone three/four/five times in quick succession). What is it, stage fright?

There was one this morning. As I was preparing to start my day, the Batphone rang. I couldn't get to it in time and I thought I would respond to the voicemail when I was in a better position to take notes etc. It rang again, immediately, but I was still in a state of preoccupation. The phone then rang a third time, and then a fourth; FFS! Both my kids haven't left for school yet and all appears to be well around me, so who the fk could this be at 0745? Could my elderly mum be in trouble? It turned out to be someone asking if I could quote for a new patio door...

[MattsCar]

If calling a mobile, I can't see the point of leaving a voicemail.

They will see you have called and will ring you back and vice-versa.

I can't stand rambling voice mails which end with "I'll explain when we speak" only for them to repeat exactly what they said in the voicemail when you do so.

Also, people that leave voicemails such as "Hi, it is me, can you call me back" are annoying. I can see you've called and have just wasted time listening to that for no reason.

[Glassman]

MattsCar said:

If calling a mobile, I can't see the point of leaving a voicemail.

They will see you have called and will ring you back and vice-versa.

I can't stand rambling voice mails which end with "I'll explain when we speak" only for them to repeat exactly what they said in the voicemail when you do so.

Also, people that leave voicemails such as "Hi, it is me, can you call me back" are annoying. I can see you've called and have just wasted time listening to that for no reason.

Yeah, can see that. Put this into a business context. That random number might be a spammer.

[Mobile Chicane]

I've observed that people who leave voice messages tend to be those who don't read or write to well.

Just reply by text.

[Alickadoo]

Mobile Chicane said:

I've observed that people who leave voice messages tend to be those who don't read or write to well.

Oh the irony!

[Glassman]

Alickadoo said:

Mobile Chicane said:

I've observed that people who leave voice messages tend to be those who don't read or write to well.

Oh the irony!

I left it alone.

[GasEngineer]

Glassman said:

Why can't some people leave a message when you don't answer the call? I get that sometimes you just need to speak and it may not be that urgent so you'll dump the call before voicemail starts recording, but there are people who will ring and when there's no answer they'll ring again withing seconds sometimes repeating this twice, three times or even four... and then when I stop what I'm doing thinking it might be someone from the school to do with the kids or something equally as urgent, it'll be someone whose opening salvo will be to ask how much a windscreen replacement costs. Why not leave a message at the prompt when there's no answer? My outgoing message is very polite and it states that I WILL call back as soon as I am able to. Some people will even say they don't like leaving voicemail (but they don't see how annoying it can be to call someone three/four/five times in quick succession). What is it, stage fright? ..

They probably don't think that you will really get back to them quickly enough if they leave a message so keep trying until they get an answer.

You're annoyed that they keep calling, but they are probably just as frustrated as you thinking "why doesn't he just answer the fking phone?"

If I'm in one of those queues for a business that says "your call is important etc .. but if you tap 1 we'll call you back when you would have reached the front of the queue" I don't trust them and carry on waiting.

[Alorotom]

There isnt really.

It just depends on each person, where they are at the time, whats convenient for them and how they want to interact.

I am on a few WA groups where the voicenotes are normally defo not for public listening, and will only listen/respond to them directly after I have gone somewhere private to hear them but will respond to other text notes accordingly.

I know some people who refuse to voicenote and thats fine - its just about personal preference - dont get hung up on any perceived decorum

[romeogolf]

All I can say OP is that I feel your pain with the repeated-callers. My only thought is that they don't check their own voicemails so assume nobody else will either. The perfect voicemail is a short "Hi, it's romegolf calling about those new doors. I'm available until 3 o'clock today on 07123456789." At most I'd also text to say "I left a voicemail about the doors, available until 3 today" etc. in case they were somewhere they couldn't pick up but would see/reply to a text.

I've never had a "professional" voice note, only ever between friends, and I'll respond however feels right at the time. No etiquette to it from where I'm sitting.

[xx99xx]

MattsCar said:

If calling a mobile, I can't see the point of leaving a voicemail.

They will see you have called and will ring you back and vice-versa.

I can't stand rambling voice mails which end with "I'll explain when we speak" only for them to repeat exactly what they said in the voicemail when you do so.

Also, people that leave voicemails such as "Hi, it is me, can you call me back" are annoying. I can see you've called and have just wasted time listening to that for no reason.

Not necessarily. If I have a missed call (either intentionally or unintentionally missed) and no message is left, clearly it wasn't that important so I won't ring them back.

I received a rare voice note on a WhatsApp group chat last week (non work related). I saw it was 5 minutes long so didn't even attempt to listen to it. Noone else commented or replied to that voice note so presumably it was rambling guff not worthy of a response or noone else listened to it either.

[FoxtrotOscar1]

As a guy in his late 30's running a small business I prefer leaving voice notes to friends and family when acceptable. We are all busy living our own reality. Voice notes allow you to not really stop and do other things along side leaving them.


I don't use it in a professional setting but for a quick "hi mate, do you know anything about xxxxx" etc its ace.

[Glassman]

FoxtrotOscar1 said:

As a guy in his late 30's running a small business I prefer leaving voice notes to friends and family when acceptable. We are all busy living our own reality. Voice notes allow you to not really stop and do other things along side leaving them.


I don't use it in a professional setting but for a quick "hi mate, do you know anything about xxxxx" etc its ace.

Do you reply voicenote with voicenote?

[WelshPetrolhead]

Not really a fan of WA voice notes. Quick and easy for the sender, but not necessarily for the recipient.

It's not so bad when I'm at home, but if I'm at work or just generally out and about, I don't want to blast a note out because I don't want people to hear my conversation, so have to go somewhere quieter to listen to it..sometimes listen to it more than once if it isn't clear. In that time I could have easily read a text and fired off a reply and then got on with my day. Pretty much all of the time I will reply to a voice note with a text.

I will make use of someones voicemail if I can't get hold of them on a call though.

Edited by WelshPetrolhead on Monday 20th January 17:34

[xx99xx]

WelshPetrolhead said:

Not really a fan of WA voice notes. Quick and easy for the sender, but not necessarily for the recipient.

It's not so bad when I'm at home, but if I'm at work or just generally out and about, I don't want to blast a note out because I don't want people to hear my conversation, so have to go somewhere quieter to listen to it..sometimes listen to it more than once if it isn't clear. In that time I could have easily read a text and fired off a reply and then got on with my day. Pretty much all of the time I will reply to a voice note with a text.

I will make use of someones voicemail if I can't get hold of them on a call though.

Edited by WelshPetrolhead on Monday 20th January 17:34

Precisely. And got me thinking.....there doesn't need to be an etiquette. Just reply in a manner you're comfortable with.

I don't think there's anything wrong with one person sending voice notes and the other person replying in text, or vice versa. For sure though, someone sending me voice notes will not be enticing me to reply with a voice note. They'll get a carefully crafted written message like everyone else! I don't keep my phone speaker volume on for a start, so voice notes are not practical.

Also, why send a voice note when you could just phone someone?

[EmailAddress]

Glassman said:

There was one this morning. As I was preparing to start my day, the Batphone rang. I couldn't get to it in time and I thought I would respond to the voicemail when I was in a better position to take notes etc. It rang again, immediately, but I was still in a state of preoccupation. The phone then rang a third time, and then a fourth; FFS! Both my kids haven't left for school yet and all appears to be well around me, so who the fk could this be at 0745? Could my elderly mum be in trouble? It turned out to be someone asking if I could quote for a new patio door...

To be clear, you're running a business, and are annoyed that people are calling you to request your business.

That they call in at a time appropriate for them, and not you, is cause for your annoyance.

Then your inability to have your technology set in such a way that works for you, leaves you frustrated at the callers inability to read your mind.

You need to assess your setup.

The fact no one trusts / believes that a business will honour a call-back may be a slight on society, but your frustrations in dealing with that are because of the way you have structured your communications.

[ecs]

Glassman said:

Alickadoo said:

Mobile Chicane said:

I've observed that people who leave voice messages tend to be those who don't read or write to well.

Oh the irony!

I left it alone.

There is a point in there though - sometimes you're dealing with people for whom English is their 2nd, 3rd, e.t.c. language. So they can speak English but can't necessarily write it and in that case, you have the WhatsApp voicenote.

[Glassman]

EmailAddress said:

Glassman said:

There was one this morning. As I was preparing to start my day, the Batphone rang. I couldn't get to it in time and I thought I would respond to the voicemail when I was in a better position to take notes etc. It rang again, immediately, but I was still in a state of preoccupation. The phone then rang a third time, and then a fourth; FFS! Both my kids haven't left for school yet and all appears to be well around me, so who the fk could this be at 0745? Could my elderly mum be in trouble? It turned out to be someone asking if I could quote for a new patio door...

To be clear, you're running a business, and are annoyed that people are calling you to request your business.

That they call in at a time appropriate for them, and not you, is cause for your annoyance.

Then your inability to have your technology set in such a way that works for you, leaves you frustrated at the callers inability to read your mind.

You need to assess your setup.

The fact no one trusts / believes that a business will honour a call-back may be a slight on society, but your frustrations in dealing with that are because of the way you have structured your communications.

No, I was annoyed at the string of three/four calls in quick succession. I was busy (on the toilet/getting ready etc) at the time they called, plus it was 0745 hours which is about 45 minutes before I officially open for business. It states this on my website and also in the 'sorry we cannot answer your call...' greeting on VM.


ETA: There is also an auto-response on WA which gives some information like email address, opening hours etc.

Edited by Glassman on Tuesday 21st January 08:34

[milfordkong]

I don't like voice notes for one of the aforementioned reasons, it can be very inconvenient to listen to them in a lot of situations, I often put them on 1.5 or 2x speed to get through them quickly and i've never sent a voice note in my life so will always reply with a written message. I just prefer text based communication though, have always preferred texting or emailing to calling, just suits me better - Fully appreciate others (a lot of others) prefer to speak.

[EmailAddress]

Glassman said:

EmailAddress said:

Glassman said:

There was one this morning. As I was preparing to start my day, the Batphone rang. I couldn't get to it in time and I thought I would respond to the voicemail when I was in a better position to take notes etc. It rang again, immediately, but I was still in a state of preoccupation. The phone then rang a third time, and then a fourth; FFS! Both my kids haven't left for school yet and all appears to be well around me, so who the fk could this be at 0745? Could my elderly mum be in trouble? It turned out to be someone asking if I could quote for a new patio door...

To be clear, you're running a business, and are annoyed that people are calling you to request your business.

That they call in at a time appropriate for them, and not you, is cause for your annoyance.

Then your inability to have your technology set in such a way that works for you, leaves you frustrated at the callers inability to read your mind.

You need to assess your setup.

The fact no one trusts / believes that a business will honour a call-back may be a slight on society, but your frustrations in dealing with that are because of the way you have structured your communications.

No, I was annoyed at the string of three/four calls in quick succession. I was busy (on the toilet/getting ready etc) at the time they called, plus it was 0745 hours which is about 45 minutes before I officially open for business. It states this on my website and also in the 'sorry we cannot answer your call...' greeting on VM.


ETA: There is also an auto-response on WA which gives some information like email address, opening hours etc.

Edited by Glassman on Tuesday 21st January 08:34

You're blinded by your annoyance.

Take a step back and review how people can contact you if there is a route that can cause you grief.

[Triumph Man]

My wife and one of her best friends seem to only communicate via voicenote - why don't you just speak on the phone?

I prefer typing a message, but then I also don't like Facetime - if I'm doing something else and someone (generally it's my wife's dad) who facetimes I leave the room as I feel like it's the equivalent of whoever it is just walking uninvited into my home. Especially (again using the example of my wife's dad) he always asks "where's Alex?"