Voicemail is annoying. It's intrusive. And it's inconvenient. It's also a necessity.
I rarely answer my cell phone during the day, unless I'm expecting a call (or it's that feisty redhead from last night). Everything else goes right to voicemail. And I'll get whatever info I need, and return my calls, when I have the time.
The irony is that retrieving my voicemail is itself a pain in the ass. Usually I listen to them in the car (I know, not the best time to be on the cell phone. But I do use an earpiece.), and if I have to take notes, or write down a number or email address, I'm screwed. And I end up saving the message to replay later when I have a pen, (and am not operating a 2,000 lb. vehicle during rush hour). And we all that have that one friend who seems to think if he doesn't leave every last friggin detail on the recording, you won't get back to him. One minute of relevant info surrounded by 20 minutes of rambling. skipping to the important part would save a ton of time and aggravation.
To make getting your messages less of a hassle, there are some new services that let you opt to get your voicemail sent as text to your phone or email. SimulScribe is one of them.
Its voice recognition "technology" converts your message to text that's sent to any email enabled device
or online mailbox, along with the original audio. (You'll also need a wireless data plan from your carrier.) Then you can check it whenever you want, or even when you wouldn't dream of normally checking voicemail (on your Blackberry during a meeting, for instance). You can choose to respond via email, text message or an actual return call. And manage/store/sort messages like you would regular emails, saving them without worrying about people getting the annoying "this mailbox is full" message.
No more taking notes. No more looking for a pen to write down phone numbers. And no more suffering through seemingly endless messages. Your productivity level just got a boost.
40 Messages for $9.95. 25 cents per message after that.
www.simulscribe.com