Clogged Communication Channels: Are They Marring Your Image?
Last night I was working late at the office, when a call came in to my extension. Thinking it might be one of our consultants stuck in an airport, victim of a cancelled flight somewhere, I answered.
The stranger on the phone responded, “Uh, …oh, …it’s you. I, well, I didn’t expect you to answer. I’m not prepared. I, uh, I was just going to leave a voice mail with a few questions. I didn’t think you’d be answering your own phone. I’m just totally surprised. Well, let’s see. My questions: I’m just finishing my master’s degree and hoping to change jobs, and well, actually I’m in a bank lobby right now and can’t really talk about it. I don’t have a lot of time to go into it. I just called, thinking you wouldn’t be there. But now that I have you, maybe you could tell me what I need to know about this industry. We’re starting a business very similar to yours and wanted to know if you could help us get started—things like …”
It seems that similar silly calls have been needling L.M. Sixel, columnist for the Houston Chronicle, as well. She interviewed me recently for a column on phone and email manners. Her complaint? People who call and open with, “Did you get my email?”
But the problem is NOT just proper phone usage. Email isn’t all that dependable these days either. On three different occasions last week, we emailed items to people who never received them. They had to call and say, “it’s not coming through—where is it?” Four days ago, an American Express agent promised to email confirmation of a vacation itinerary “immediately.” It hasn’t arrived yet. So should I wade through all their phone recordings, pressing this and that, to find out what happened—or should I assume the agent just hasn’t gotten around to finishing the job?
The pressing predicament for all of us in the workplace? All communication channels have become clogged. Automated menus make it difficult to reach a human by phone. Email gets snagged by spam-filters or lost in cyberspace. Physical mailboxes contain little more than junk mail. Cell phones lose signals and drop calls.
But before we blame it all on technology snafus, we have to look in the mirror. Many of us hide behind voice mail routinely so that even Regis Philbin couldn’t get through. We send email and hope for only email responses so that we don’t have to actually talk to people.
Both voice mail and email CAN be productivity tools. But when used poorly, they can thwart communication of even the most competent and committed—and send customers fleeing to your competitors.



