In the course of working with a fast growing business, you get exposed to many different people. Prospects, clients, employees, potential employees, vendors and consultants all bring different communication skills to the table. That’s not news of course, but it’s simply amazing to me the lack of effort some people put into communicating effectively.
Here are my top 5 online communication pet peeves:
- Emails asking for a call back and they don’t include a phone number in their signature, and many times, not a signature at all.
- Phone messages with a name and a number and no reason for calling.
- Phone messages and the phone number is read so fast, you’d think the person was in a contest for fast-phone-number-reading.
- Email responses that acknowledge a problem, but do not offer any solutions.
- IM exchanges that should really use email. Email exchanges that should really use a phone.
I’m sure I could spend some time thinking up more, but there are what come to mind on this great Friday afternoon.
As for #3, I always leave my phone number twice as I absolutely hate it when I get a message that leaves the number so fast that I can’t get it written down.
I would like to echo McMahon’s comment, the phone number twice for non-familiar vmails should be standard business etiquette. Listenening to vmails twice or three times is a waste of time.
Spelling listening right the first time is also important.