Intelligent Celphone Etiquette

*feature article August 2007*

Yesterday we did not have the technology, yet we managed. Today we have the technology, yet we don't seem to manage much better. How would it be if we just learned to use the technology we now have at our disposal...properly?

The original cellphone breakthrough was a massive one. Now we can take and make calls on the move. Great idea. But it's all become rather overkill these days. The latest handsets, designed to meet increased transmission technology, can send all sorts of messages including photo and video footage, built in GPS (you know, that navigation thing...!). Others allow you to pick up the 6 o'clock news in technicolour, do your banking, and pick up email simultaneously! I can think of nothing worse. Is no-one permitted a life anymore?

I use my cellphone to communicate and remind. Short, sweet and simple. If someone sends me a text message I'll read it. If it's voicemeail, I'll listen to it when I have time. My cellphone wakes me in the morning and keeps my diary.

Companies that train their telereps to market to people's cell phones should be boycotted en-mass. What a cheek! A cellphone is a personal and private instrument. It is used by people for personal calls to and from people they know, and for specific business communication. You phone a person on their cell phone when you have a good reason to, preferably if you know them, and not to make a cold call.

I have a simple business philosophy. Unless I know that a person is most likely to be out of the office, I usually try them on their landline first as a courtesy. Why should I therefore be pestered by someone I don't know, phoning me on my personal handset and trying to sell me gym membership, wasting my time to ask me how I am? As if they care.

When I phone someone on their cell, after immediately identifying myself in case they don't have me on call identification, I always ask: "Is this a convenient time?" or "Do you have a minute to talk?" Why?

It's because I do not labour under some illusion that the recipient of my call has been idly sitting around just waiting for the moment that I would call them. The people I call have lives, and therefore I assume that everyone that I call is busy doing something already - in other words, my call is an interruption. Their immediate response will let me know if it is a welcome one or not. If it is not, I will be courteous enough to get off the line fast!

Here is a really good idea. Before you call someone, ask yourself this question:"Is it really necessary to call (interrupt) them, or will a text message do the trick?

The advantage of a text message is substantial. You're not interrupting. The person can read the message at their leisure. You can type up to 145 characters and just be billed for one text message - substantially cheaper to you than a call. And if it's an important message, they can retain a "mobile" record of the message.

Here's the next tip: Only leave a voice message if you absolutely have to - and then keep it short, please. You don't like having to listen to long voice messages, with the important parts being cut off by the shocking signal offered by our expensive service providers, so why should anyone else?

If you have a calendar on your phone, it's time to learn to use it. These days, you need merely to activate your bluetooth and once set up you can seemlessly back up and synchronise your contacts and calendar so that if some ass pinches your phone, you don't lose all your info. It's a bit like a mini hijacking. What''s more important - your life or a R300,000 car? Well that's a no brainer. Same with a phone. The handset is easily replaceable, your data (and for that matter your life) is not.

The vast majority of mainstream business cell phone users, ie your main market, are using their phones for primarily a small handful of functions: Making and taking calls, texting, alarm and diary. Simple. Good idea to get your mind around these skills first before you train your phone to make you coffee the way you like it.

Finally, the grace period for not having a hands free in your car is over. Every time I hear that a bunch of kids has been mowed down at a zebra crossing by some twit yakking on his cellphone, my blood starts boiling. The deteriorating standard of driving on our roads is bad enough. I trust I can count on you not to exacerbate the situation.

I love technology. I respect people that make the most of it. I admire those that, despite the distraction that technology creates, have retained the ability to communicate effectively. We need much more of that in all our lives today.

Thanks for reading this, and for being one of those people that care enough to make your patch of the world a better place. Lets join hands.

Paul du Toit

Professional Speaker, Mindset Shifter, Presentation Skills Expert, Facilitator, Coach, Long Distance Runner-out-of-Hybernation, left brain thinker... and Dad.