Dive Brief:
- Large employers – Coca-Cola and JPMorgan Chase among them – are cutting back on phone message-taking technology, according to an article at SHRM. The main drivers behind this trend are cost savings and increased productivity, SHRM reports.
- Another factor? Millennials are a growing consumer and workforce population, and they are not interested in leaving a message, one expert tells SHRM. For example, SHRM references a New York Times article from 2015 that said Vonage, an Internet phone call provider, began seeing a steep drop in people retrieving their voice mail messages between 2013 and 2014.
- Coca-Cola dumped voice mail at Atlanta HQ this past December. Instead, callers are put on hold a few times and soon a a recorded message will tell them to call again later or to use “an alternative method” to reach someone.
Dive Insight:
SHRM reports that in an interview with NPR, JPMorgan Chase’s Managing Director of Communications Trish Wexler said the company also shed voice mail to save money, and the results have been impressive at more than $8 million annually. Before the major bank dropped voice mail, it polled employees. She told NPR that employees actually called voice mail "annoying" and "redundant" and that they don't use it any more.
On possible option, SHRM said, is turning voice mail messages into a readable format. One company, YouMail, for example, can digitize voice mails, turning them into readable texts or e-mails.
While it's doubtful the trend is wholly widespread, it may be a glimpse into the future as more and more people depend on their smartphones as their lone means of voice communication.