When to use the phone vs email?

[Sue J]

I don't mind using a phone call to take care of something. What I dislike is when I have to leave a voicemail message and wait for the call back. This is annoying because often I have other calls to make and I don't like the call waiting beep thing happening when I am on another call. Or I call a business to take care of something and then move on to something else and I don't know if they will call back in 5 minutes or 5 hours, or tomorrow.

This used to happen at my doctors office - Your call is important to us, please leave your name, phone number, yada yada and we will call you back....

This was happening so often that I mentioned it to the doctor. She told me many people had complained and that they had just hired additional staff to handle these kinds of things. Recently they moved many of their functions to an online patient portal which is easy to use and gets a response in a timely matter.

Email is great for having a written record, but sometimes you need to talk to an actual person. I take notes and if needed I ask for their name and extension.

[kcowan]

Since being retired in 2002, I mainly interact with service providers to resolve issues. I prefer online chat and phone. The chat seems to solve things like the phone did in the old days. But I hate call centers. If they give me a callback option, I always take it.

But in Mexico where calling back seems to be a sign of weakness, I just keep calling. There are times of day when the phone is more likely to be answered.