This message could be for those folks who barrel down the middle of our little country road, endangering dogs, calves who escape their fences, and even oncoming cars.
But… those people don’t visit Active Rain, so this is a different message.
This is about slowing down when leaving messages on answering machines.
I would think that real estate professionals, wanting their potential clients to return their calls, would habitually slow down, enunciate clearly, and put enough volume in their voices to be heard clearly.
But that is not always the case. At least it isn’t always the case with agents who call me with regard to my prospecting letter sets or to discuss having custom real estate copy written.
Some act as if they're in a race to get those words out - perhaps so they can move on to the next call?
Sometimes I have to replay a message 3 or 4 times before I can figure out a name and a phone number. And sometimes I’m still unsuccessful. There are a few people out there in the world who think I’m some kind of rude jerk for not returning their call.
Sometimes my answering machine picks up the phone number of the person who called – and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I can get enough of the number to see that it’s different from the number he or she used when calling. I can try calling that – but it’s likely to be an agency number, and since I couldn’t understand the caller’s name, I usually don’t call.
It seems a bit awkward to call a brokerage tht might have 50 agents to say “Someone at your number called me, but I don’t know who it was. May I please speak to that person.”
You may be racing to make a dozen calls in the next hour, but if you’re leaving a phone message, please:
Speak up! Usually it’s ladies who speak so softly that my machine doesn’t catch all the words, but some men also speak very softly. A few times I’ve found myself with my ear next to the machine, trying hard to hear the words.
Slow down – way down. Many people naturally talk fast, and I’ve found that many who do so have some sort of pronounced accent. In person we can ask them to repeat something, but the answering machine doesn’t do that. Speak your name slowly, one word at a time. Then recite your phone number, one clear number at a time, with a slight pause between numbers. Instead of onetwo, say one, two.
Enunciate – especially if you have an accent. And, before you take offense, I’ve been told that ALL of us have a bit of an accent.
I’m in North Idaho, in a little town not far across the Washington / Idaho border from Spokane, Washington. One of my friends moved to Southern California. While chatting with another woman in a grocery store line she was interrupted by a gentleman who said “Excuse me, but are you by any chance from Spokane?” She said she was from a place very near there and he replied that he could tell by her accent. She was startled, because she didn’t think she had an accent.
The bottom line: Make it easy for people to hear and understand your messages. If you don’t, you very likely won’t get a return call.
Turtle Image courtesy of japanachai at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Racing business men Image courtesy of jesadaphorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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