Are there people in your life, personal or professional, that insist on speaking on the phone? Oh, they could email you, but they don’t. If they do email you the message is: call me. Are they worried about leaving a paper trail?
Written communication is so easy and quick – forcing one to consider and summarize the key thoughts and messages, if only banal ones, into a coherent form. If there is something to decide, information to be passed along, insights to be shared, it is so preferable to have that summarized and documented if only in a 200 word email, than a rambling phone call. For many that’s the only way they really want to communicate.
People working in sales are really like this, but they have a specific purpose: to get you to do purchase something from them. Whether it’s a long-term large sale, or a quick one, a salesman (I’m not talking retail sales) will try to insist on a face-to-face meeting. If they cannot get that, they will ask for a phone call. If that fails they will, as a last resort, email you. They may also send you snail mail to make an impact that way as well. They understand how important it is to have the personal touch and email has the lowest score in that area. It’s hard to say “no” to a person who has flown accross the country to see you for an hour.
I met somebody on a travel vacation this past summer who has called me a few times. I had not spoken with her for a month or so and I got a facebook message from her to “call her”. I replied “what’s up?” to which she replied “see above” which means “call me”. I REALLY hate game-playing like that, so apparently she does not really want to speak with me. I let her figure that one out.
The fact is that time is our most precious commodity and a phone call can frequently be a waste of time. People with lots of time on their hands seem to prefer phone calls, while others avoid them unless it’s the fastest way to accomplish something. Even those people who call and talk to you about a hundred different topics and complain that they are “swamped” with work have not learned that they habitually squander their most precious resource. One wonders who they call when you finally get them off the phone.
To keep this short, I will mention the classic time-waster-phone-call: the “i’m driving” phone call. Do you have people who call you when they are in traffic, or otherwise on a long commute? The call lasts the length of their drive: they are killing time – your time. Of course if you are talking about something of interest you may be engaged, only to learn that the phone call will be terminated once they reach their destination. Your dialogue with them is of limited importance.
Use time wisely: text first, email second, phone third and meet last.