The End of Voicemail?

The concept of the end of voicemail is not new and has been around for years. I read a blog recently about “the millennials” killing all kinds of stuff, including doorbells (of all things!) and voicemail. Now let’s not go blaming everything on millennials. I don’t think millennials killed voice mail. Voicemail is still important for customer-facing parts of a business. While there are other communication methods, voice and thus voicemail for this part of a business is still important. So voicemail has not been killed. But it has declined for sure, and it’s really other technology that did this, not a millennial. Better technology. Better technology in the way of faster and more efficient communication methods. Let’s examine why I don’t use voicemail nearly as much anymore. I think, in this respect, I am typical:

1. People can contact me using email, and that’s easier for me to get to and respond to them, remotely anyway.
2. People can contact me using our instant message system. Even if I’m in a meeting or on a conference call and can’t “talk”, I can respond to an instant message.
3. I’ve noticed now that even if I’m not online, and the “green dot” isn’t on, people send me a note to respond to this way. Kind of like a voicemail except on instant message. So once I come online, then I can respond. Again, easier and faster than a voicemail.
4. Text messaging. Definitely this is taking off for my colleagues at work. This is when I know it’s important. Again, can handle this on a conference call or when in a meeting.
5. Direct messages to my Twitter account. I got a few of these last week, for example.

So, for sure, it’s declined, led by technology. But it’s not dead, and it’s critical for customer-facing parts of the business.