The observation above came from one of the former Google CEOs ( Douglas Merrill, Getting Organized in the Google Era). As a CEO, Merrill received calls from other big business people. And they were clueless about the fine art of leaving their phone number.  The rest of us fare no better.

While taking calls as an office girl, I noticed three things:

1. If a caller repeats his/her phone number twice and/or pronounces it slowly I hardly ever rewind the message to get the digits right,

2. I get a mild feeling of irritation with a caller when I have to rewind a message more than twice to get the number right,

3. If the message is not that important to me, I do not bother at all to rewind, to write down and – consequently – to call back.

Here are the simple rules of leaving your phone number:

1.  Make your message brief. The bulk of it shall be dedicated to your name and your phone number.

2. Pronounce your phone number in even voice, slooowly.  Say it twice.  Before reciting your phone number, say “Here is my phone number. I will say it twice.” As stupid as this phrase sounds, it lets the listener know in advance that there is no need to rewind the whole message right away when he/she first  misses a digit.

3. Consider the background noise and your accent.  Frequently the  messages left from cell phones sound very poor. Sames goes for the messages left from the noisy places.  Regional and foreign accents can be a real problem for a listener:  if you (like me) speak English with an accent, articulate every sound (and speak sloooowly).

4. Use word zero! 1-800 is one-eight-hundred, not one-eight-ou-ou.

5. Pronounce your number digit by digit.

6. Say your area code and country code (if you are calling from abroad) first. Assume no knowledge on a part of your listener.

Thank you for reading this & may your voice mails be a delight to the ears of their recipients!