Even Telecom Workers Don't Want To Talk On the Phone (fastcompany.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Of the 1,000 Americans surveyed by Fundera, more than half said they prefer email, even though an often overflowing inbox has been proven to hinder productivity. Other methods of communicating paled in comparison. For instance, face-to-face conversations came in a distant second, preferred by only 15.8% of respondents, while phone calls came in at the bottom across 17 different industries. Even telecom workers don't want to talk on the phone: 70% would prefer to use instant messages or email.

Comments

Yeah so?

[yokem_55]

If we answer the phone then we have to do things like help our customers and solve problems. If you don't answer the phone, eventually people stop calling....

Re:Yeah so?

[ShanghaiBill]

If we answer the phone then we have to do things like help our customers and solve problems.

Phone calls are a poor medium for "solving problems". An emailed inquiry with specific information, maybe including a screenshot, is far superior. Then I can send a reply with specific instructions, a photo of the solution, and links for more information. When I hire tech-support people, they almost always ask if they will have to do phone support, and if they are good, I will hire them anyway. So the dreg employees staff the phones, where they recite the manual to idiots too lazy to read it for themselves.

There are some good tech support phone calls, such as this: "I have a critical problem, and just emailed you a detailed description. Please read it and respond ASAP!". But other than that, I don't think so.

In related surveys ...

[Obfuscant]

A majority (76%) of ER doctors admitted that they did not want to need to use the ER, and 63% of morticians said they did not want to have to make use of their own services personally. And only 14% of Slashdot editors admitted that they felt they needed to use an editor before accepting a submission.

Crafting Answers

[Bigbutt]

Email is a benefit for me. It lets me read the email, check my data, craft an answer, and have a paper trail of the task. I also know what is needed and can refer to the email should there be a dispute.

Phone: "Hey, I need you to blah blah blah"

Me: "Okay, send me an email with the details and I'll get on it."

[John]

What's this ringly thingie on my desk?

[__aaclcg7560]

The majority of my coworkers communicate via Microsoft Lync (IM) with a headset. I got a coworker who uses the phone because he doesn't want to leave a paper trail that could make him look bad. He gets mad at me because I document everything out of habit. What he says over the phone doesn't always match what he writes in the ticket log. I've put him on my "trust but verify" list of coworkers.

Doesn't interrupt my schedule

[SoftwareArtist]

If someone emails me, I can deal with it whenever it's convenient for me. If they phone me, I'm supposed to deal with it right that moment, no matter what I was in the middle of when they interrupted me. Or I can let it go to voicemail, but that's way less convenient to check than email.