Ways in which to contact me, ranked

This story is literally ALL OVER my Twitter feed this morning:

Coca-Cola Disconnects Voice Mail at Headquarters

The headline is pretty self-explanatory, but if you needed more context, here is an excerpt from the piece on Bloomberg:

Forget about leaving a voice mail at Coca-Cola Co.’s (KO) Atlanta headquarters. Send a text instead.

Office voice mail at the world’s largest soft-drink maker was shut down “to simplify the way we work and increase productivity,” according to an internal memo from Chief Information Officer Ed Steinike. The change went into effect this month, and a standard outgoing message now throws up an electronic stiff arm, telling callers to try later or use “an alternative method” to contact the person.

Coca-Cola is one of the biggest companies yet to ditch its old-style voice mail, which requires users to push buttons to scroll through messages and listen to them one at a time. Landline voice mail is increasingly redundant now that smartphones are ubiquitous and texting is as routine as talking.

Nice work, Coke - and welcome to the club. SMB Enterprises, (me), has had a Voice Mail ban in effect for about two years now (and reports that the ban has been 'extremely successful').

Voice mail is terrible, obviously. 

But reading the Coca-Cola article made me think about how I like to actually be contacted for business/work related matters. And since there are more ways than ever before in which the average person can actually be contacted, creating this little list was tougher than I figured it would be. 

But let's give it a shot, maybe some PR person out there will read this and it will save me at least one random phone call.

Ways SMB prefers to be contacted from least preferred to most preferred:

11. Voice mail (sort of doesn't even belong on the list, as you usually can't really leave me a voice mail)

10. Phone call

9. Any form of communication (message, tag, poke) possible on Facebook

8. Twitter direct message (never look at them, and they are way, way too easy to accidentally make public)

7. Twitter 'mention'

6. LinkedIn message (this is just another Inbox that I have to check, and it is also a horrible messaging platform)

5. Email

4. Postcard or letter (You never write anymore!)

3. Cyber Dust

2. SMS Message

1. Fax

That's it, what about you? Are calls and voice mails dead to you as well?

Comments

[Doug]

Hi Steve - interesting stuff. I've not owned a fax machine since I can't remember when so my list would look somewhat different to yours. I'm surprised and curious why the phone is so far down on your list. Phone calls (and Skype and Google Hangouts) - I like 'em, though maybe not quite as much as cyber dust. Postcards and letters - I like them too, I spent over $600 on postage stamps last year - that's a lot of letters and cards. Email is slipping down my list - increasingly I find myself preferring contact via other channels, G+, Twitter, Facebook.

I currently still have voicemail on my mobile but maybe that should be something I throw away in the New Year along with these old rolls of fax paper.

Have a lovely Christmas - Doug.

[Steve]

Thanks for the comments, Doug, hope you are well. I was joking about the fax. But it is not really easy to tell that, I admit. As for calls, of course I have plenty of them for business, but I do find very often that what ends up being an hour long call could have been taken care of with a few short messages. I just don't want the 'we have to get on a call' to be the default, particularly for the many kinds of inbound inquiries I get from people I do not know.

I don't really like Email either, but I also don't like (for business/work reasons) having to stay on top of a dozen different communication channels either. Everyone has their own style, and is entitled to that, but for example I hate, hate, hate when someone sends me 'work' messages on Facebook. Other folks are ok with that I know.

Anyway, Happy Holidays!

[Bill Kutik]

I'm confused by your list Steve. Obviously the higher numbers are your least favorite, but in your response you said you don't like e-mail, either, Facebook for business, and LinkedIn sucks (couldn't agree more).

So that leaves CyberDust (please explain that to an old fart) and SMS, since fax is obviously a joke. So is a text your fave? People ask me all the time, so it's a serious question.

[Trish]

Just now seeing this and will share it like crazy when people ask me for the best way to reach you. Clearly I can attest that SMS is your #1 along with G+ messages. As for me, just DM me. :)