People don’t like to leave voicemail

I tallied how many people called my office phone yesterday, but did not reach me because I was out, in meetings, at lunch, etc.

The number of “missed calls” was at least 19. This is probably undercounted because it doesn’t count calls missed because I was on the phone. Since I don’t have Call Waiting, my Caller ID wouldn’t know there was a missed call.

The number of voicemail messages left: 3.

The breakdown of missed calls were:

• BZ Media’s New York office: 3
• BZ Media folk not in the NY office: 4
• Other calls with Caller ID info: 7
• No Caller ID info or “out of area”: 6

At least five of the seven missed calls were from public relations agencies, according to Caller ID. Four calls were from the same PR agency. One call was from another PR agency. One call was from a business partner. The last number I couldn’t identify.

None of the PR people left voicemail messages. Many PR agencies, as a matter of policy, do not leave voicemail messages when they’re pitching stories. Instead, their standard practice is to engage in “telephone stalking,” where they keep dialing reporters/editors over and over again in the hopes of catching them at their desks.

The calls with no Caller ID info were probably telemarketers, but might have been PR agencies.

Isn’t Caller ID wonderful? Every business phone should have it.