Wednesday, December 21, 2011

You've reached Ben Abbott at 907-45. . .

Why do people restate their number in their voice-mail messages? There are plenty of useful things we could be including in our messages. A few years ago my brother turned his message into a weekly trivia quiz:

"This is Sam. How many Nieuport 17 fighter planes were made during WWII? Last week's answer: Rene Descartes." 

But your phone number? That's the one piece of information you can be sure every caller already has..

I wonder how many minutes are spent annually listening to the restatement of phone numbers. I wonder how much AT&T made on that last year.

If any of you are number-restaters, or have insight into number-stater psychology, please phone me up. My voice-mail greeting will let you know the number to call.
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2 comments:

  1. britDecember 22, 2011 at 3:06 PM

    Amen. I also do not enjoy it when people's voicemail ONLY says there number and not their name. I always feel nervous that I am leaving a vm with the wrong party.

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  2. Jennie BennettDecember 27, 2011 at 3:13 PM

    My dad has the best voice mail, right now it says something like "arrrgh you've reach captain Rolf, I'm stormin' the high seas right now, but leave me a message and I'll call you back." Brilliant.

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