Voice Mail Blues

I used to think I was the only one with this problem, but during a recently conversation with some friends, I found out I am not alone. This has prompted me to confess: I hate voice mail. In fact, I really don't like talking on the phone at all. There I have said it. I am email person.

Blame it on working for a software company early in my career (in my formative professional years) or because I always feel like I am interupting something when I call people. In any case, I would much rather exchange email then play phone mail tag. I would much rather drop someone a note, then give them a call and risk them not being home, not being available to chat, in short wasting their time (or mine).

Once I sat across from a colleague who was also an emailer. Even though we worked only a few yards from each other, we found that it was often more convenient to email. It allowed us to communicate asynchronistically (like when one of us was in a meeting), allowed us to copy others into the thread that weren't within earshot of our actual conversations, and allows us to include references like links and graphics that would have been hard in a face-to-face conversation.

So, I heard something advertised today that just might be the perfect tool for someone like me. It is calld Simulscribe and it converts your voice mail messages to text messages and emails them to you (or SMS to your cell phone, if you callers doing ramble). Has anyone used this or other tools of this sort? I am wondering how long it will be before one of the "phone companys" that are also into hand-held or data services offer a phone plan that isn't a phone plan at all: it is just voice-to-text message services.

Now, I understand that many of my close friends are phone people. I like them. I admire their commitment to building relationships, resolving conflict, and reaching out. I know that email isn't an appropriate medium for lots of messages (ie, "we should start seeing other people," "You're Fired," and "the lump looks suspicious" come to mind), but for 90% of things you want to say, email works fantastic!

There are whole industries that have not recognized or served people like me. The medical profession for one. I can not go online to book an appointment with my doctor or dentist. They don't confirm or reschedule via email. They won't answer routine questions via email. The same for the hair salon. As if it wasn't inconvenient enough to go to these places, they make it even more so by not letting "non-phone" people make appointments or find out your stylist's hair gel recommendation. I hope some of these folks are reading and can see that they have an underserved population (that is growing, I suspect) that could be effectively targeted with a few services that don't rely on the phone.

If they can figure that out, perhaps someone can also invent a dynamic voice mail recordings that connect to your Outlook calendar to provide daily personalization to your message: "Hello, you have reached Jennifer Davis. It is Monday, August 30th and I am in the office..." It always bugged me that I had to enter conflicts on my calendar and then record a duplicate message on my phone. But then again, I am not a phone person.