You pick up the phone, you make a call. You’re ‘The A Party’.
My phone rings, I answer it. That makes me ‘The B Party’.
With me? Right.
Get comfy, it’s time for some meaty thinking.
A couple of months ago, shortly after I posted my response to Mike Arrington’s ‘Think Before You Voicemail‘ post, I started to really examine the way SpinVox had changed the way I communicate…
And before you all start - really, it has.
In the original post I said something along the lines of:
“Whenever I call anyone with a ‘traditional’ voicemail box (voicemail 1.0 if you will, natch) I certainly think about what I’m going to say - most of the time, if I’m honest, I hang up.”
But, what I also point out is that, when I encounter SpinVox… Actually no… Past tense..
When I’ve encountered SpinVox… i.e.:
Once I’ve been pushed through to the mailbox, left my message and then hung up…
I leave the call knowing that my message will be delivered.
My callee - the ‘B Party’ in this instance - can’t give me the usual schtick of:
‘Sorry, I never checked my voicemail.’
…because I KNOW that, through SpinVox, the message HAS got there via SMS, (and/or email).
I know that the callee ALWAYS checks their SMSs and I also know that they place the same importance over their emails.
So either way - my message gets delivered.
Y’see, there seems to be a lack of importance placed on voicemail messages these days which is thanks, in no small part, to the hideous amount of work you have to do to retrieve them, I’m sure…
I mean really, someone is calling you RIGHT NOW that means they clearly have something to say to you RIGHT NOW. Right?
With SpinVox Voicemail YOU make the choice as a voicemail recipient - as a ‘B Party’ - that your Voicemails will be captured, converted through SpinVox and delivered to the destination of your choice. That’s great. But by doing so you also restore confidence in the calling party, the ‘A Party, that their message will get through to you.
Already this changes things…
Ok, if you’ll indulge me for a second while I show a scale that I knocked up on the white board last week;
Call it my ‘Hierarchy of Communication’:
I say ‘my’ hierachy, because it applies to me. Yours maybe different.
…in fact - draw yours now, you’ll need it later on.
A Party on the left and B Party on the right. The importance you place on how YOU like to communicate against the channels you allow others to communicate with you.
- A call comes in, I answer it - if not, push to Voicemail
- SMS, I check these quite quickly
- Then Twitter (or ‘Social’ in this instance), as they sit in with my SMSs
- Email follows after that
- Then finally, we meet on Voicemail; Traditionally the last thing we all check
If you’re a SpinVox user you know that any message converted through SpinVox, (be it a Voicemail or a Memo or even a Twitter), arrives at its destination with our little Quotation Marks wrapped around it…
Hang on a minute, I’ll call myself and show you what I mean:
These marks, aside from coinciding with our rather lovely branding, mark out this message from the others. A visual representation, if you will, that this message is different from the rest. Why?
Because it was spoken.
Now - how does that affect our scale?
Well, for me, this one small change has an immediate effect on how I prioritise my incoming messages…
Let’s take a look:
Suddenly things change.
SpinVox messages takes prioirity over my SMS.
Well. Kinda.
So a SpinVox Voicemail is delivered to my phone via SMS and sits in there with the other ‘unreads’…
Now, when it comes to checking over these text messages my eyes immediately jump to the message starting with the quotation mark.
Why? Well, I KNOW that this message was SPOKEN, right? So I know that, when that message was left the caller, the A Party, had something to say to me RIGHT NOW, (or right THEN, as it were)…
…and not only that but also what that person had to say was that important that they felt compelled to pick up the phone and speak.
Not text, not email… Speak.
That denotes a certain amount weight. Speaking a message makes that message personal. There was moment in time that someone wanted to share with me. Be it an experience or an emotion or just merely impart some knowledge. Momentous or not - something made that person want to pick up the phone and Speak.
As they say -
“If something is that important, it needs to be said.”
Empirically I’ve noted that this happens with my email too…
If I’ve been away from my desk (and - shock horror - away from my phone too) and my email inbox is the first thing I check, my eyes will always, ALWAYS jump straight to the emails from ‘SpinVox Voicemail’.
Again, spoken messages taking on this strange level of importance. Their currency has a higher value, if you will…
…
Ok - so now we pause for a second - is everyone still with me? You at the back, can you hear me OK?
Everyone following me so far? Good Good.
Now, how about we take this new found knowledge and apply it to the rest of the scale…
Like so:
By inserting SpinVox into each of these channels, the entire communication landscape changes, both inbound and outbound…
Spoken messages, no matter their origin/destination, take precedent above all of the others…
Take a moment to think about that
Really. Take it onboard.
Changes things a little… Right?
So - opening it out - What about you? Has SpinVox helped you prioritise your incoming messages?
What about our outgoing messages?
What if ‘SpinVoxing’ someone becomes an ‘A Party’ decision?
What then?
There’s a small shift in communication power there… small, yet somewhat significant, wouldn’t you say?
What do you think?
What does your scale look like?
How does SpinVox change your priorities?
Does this new prioritisation of messaging restore the primacy of voice?
Readers, it’s over to you.
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September 29th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
[...] Confidence in Communication [...]