The benefits of recording and replying to voice notes
We all need to be respectful of people’s time – it is the most important commodity we have.
In business, the volume of time invested in phone calls is significant and missed calls, cancelled meetings and busy schedules can lead to frustration as well as longer lead times. This friction can be resolved by asking the question… do I actually need to schedule a traditional call?
If a topic is time-sensitive, people are still likely to ‘jump on a call’ for the fastest response. However, quite often, there are important conversations which are not as urgent. This is where asynchronous voice notes can help.
Save time
The key benefit of asynchronous messaging is the pause feature, which allows for preparation and ‘thinking time’. On a live call, a person might ask for a business metric and the reply will often be “I don’t know” or “can I come back to you?” When this happens it can be frustrating for both requester and recipient. In this scenario voice messaging allows for a quicker and more beneficial experience for both parties.
Check-in
Another business example is checking-in with staff. For instance, when a sales rep declares their best-case figures, in voice note form, not only can numbers be received with greater confidence but those who travel or work remotely can send handsfree voice notes ‘on the go’.
Get to the point
Although automated scheduling software undoubtedly reduces the organisation of phone calls/calendar management, you can still end up with 15 minutes to half an hour spent on a call that wasn’t really necessary. Voice notes offer a more efficient solution. You will be surprised how much can be said in 30 seconds! Furthermore, keeping conversations pointed and more thoughtful increases the quality of conversation.
Accountability
As participants are being recorded, you can playback and search archives of conversations – hugely improving understanding and accountability. How many times have you been in conversations where interruptions or high emotions get in the way of progress? When people are ‘on record’ they tend to keep their emotions more controlled, which ensures that real business gets done.
People all have their own preferred methods of communications and lots of people will still opt to use the traditional keyboard and telephone methods. However when people realise:
- we can talk faster than we can type
- that voice notes provide an audit trail and
- there is no need to schedule a call
We believe voice notes will triumph over traditional calls, for a large proportion of non-urgent business communications.
Turn your voice notes into a podcast for internal communications.