Texting and Email rant

[Mighty Tytan]

Originally Posted by To Be Quite Honest

Read the 4 hour work week. It may help to understand perspective.

Email auto response:

"Greetings, Friends and Esteemed Colleagues,
Due to high workload, I am currently checking and responding to e-mail twice a daily at 12:00 pm mt and 4:00 pm mt.
If you require urgent assistance (please ensure it is urgent) that can not wait until either 12:00 pm or 4:00 pm, please contact me via phone at 403-***-****.
Thank you for understanding this move to more efficiency and effectiveness. It helps me accomplish more to serve you better."

i guess i find this kind of approach obnoxious. what, you can only talk to me if i ensure its urgent?

seems arogant. i make myself available to my clients, i see no harm in providing this level of access and service.

seems i am not the norm in this regard. although i still maintain, my late night ramblings did not serve my point justice.

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by STeeLy

Man you don't text Dion?

Get with the times dude. The technology is there, why don't you use it? Why not try twitter too?

Originally Posted by Dion

I see no need to be texting people all the time as emails and phone calls work just fine for me. Besides i've seen far too many situations where people let texting rule their lives. Someone stepping out of a movie theatre to respond to a text, or people responding to a text in a middle of a conversation. I could go on but I hope you see my point.

I know the technology exists and how to use it. I'd rather be able to choose when I respond to a person.

Did I seriously need green text there?

[Mighty Tytan]

Originally Posted by STeeLy

Did I seriously need green text there?

yes, because its a good point you made.

text is fantastic tool for quick and informal communication. to not use it, is in my opinion being stubborn for the sake of saying you arent "controlled" by it.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Mighty Tytan

yes, because its a good point you made.

text is fantastic tool for quick and informal communication. to not use it, is in my opinion being stubborn for the sake of saying you arent "controlled" by it.

Now who is making fun of who?

[Dion]

Originally Posted by STeeLy

Did I seriously need green text there?

If you disagree, tell me why

[Mighty Tytan]

Originally Posted by Dion

Now who is making fun of who?

im not making fun of you, but thats the only reason i can imagine to have a functional and practicl communications tool and willfully choose to not use it.

[RW99]

Is this thread for realz?

[To Be Quite Honest]

Originally Posted by Mighty Tytan

i guess i find this kind of approach obnoxious. what, you can only talk to me if i ensure its urgent?

seems arogant. i make myself available to my clients, i see no harm in providing this level of access and service.

seems i am not the norm in this regard. although i still maintain, my late night ramblings did not service my point justice.

It's about training your clients. It's not arrogant! You tell them EXACTLY when they should expect a response. And your not working 14 hours of the day. T4HWW helps you organise your day; for those who want to do it. I think only the unreasonable or difficult people would have an issue not knowing exactly when you will respond to them. And an emergency # is already available FOR EMERGENCIES. I charge a lot extra if you bug me after hours, and you would be suprised how many people find out just how much an emergancy can wait.

[Mighty Tytan]

Originally Posted by To Be Quite Honest

It's about training your clients. It's not arrogant! You tell them EXACTLY when they should expect a response. And your not working 14 hours of the day. T4HWW helps you organise your day; for those who want to do it. I think only the unreasonable or difficult people would have an issue not knowing exactly when you will respond to them. And an emergency # is already available FOR EMERGENCIES. I charge a lot extra if you bug me after hours, and you would be suprised how many people find out just how much an emergancy can wait.

i charge a lot more after hours too ... which is why i make it so easy to get ahold of me after hours. its premium revenue.

so, if you have an emergency and you know you can reach me without question, phone email or text or you can try and hunt down the guy who doesnt even want you to call him during business hours, who gets the call?

its no bother to call me after hours. thursday night i made $500 for about 45 minutes of phone calls cuz a client got me on MSN at 7pm.

friday night was a bit more of a pain as it did interupt dinner, but i made $150 while enroute to the hitmen game.

guess its a different philosophy. i want clients to know i am the guy they can get when they are in a jam. without fail. and they also know that i wont turn my phone off when i am on an emergency job for them so they have peace of mind.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Mighty Tytan

im not making fun of you, but thats the only reason i can imagine to have a functional and practicl communications tool and willfully choose to not use it.

Then you need to open your mind. I'm not being stubborn as I have no use for texting in my life. There are countless people who don't use every available technology that's available to them. They use what they use when it fits thier daily life.

[Mighty Tytan]

Originally Posted by Dion

Then you need to open your mind. I'm not being stubborn as I have no use for texting in my life. There are countless people who don't use every available technology that's available to them. They use what they use when it fits thier daily life.

no problem mate, i dont think less of you (as if i even know you).

it reminds me of my parents who refused to get a PVR. they had no use for it, the VCR taped their shows just fine. of course they eventually gave in and are sold on PVR technology.

why not move forward?

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Mighty Tytan

no problem mate, i dont think less of you (as if i even know you).

it reminds me of my parents who refused to get a PVR. they had no use for it, the VCR taped their shows just fine. of course they eventually gave in and are sold on PVR technology.

why not move forward?

You sound like the pushy salesman that won't take no for answer and will push and push until the customer gives in. I'll move forward when I see a need for it in my life. Trust me I know what is out there and what it can do

[To Be Quite Honest]

My time is worth more. I spend it with my family.

Read the book. You'll find out a lot of crazy little things that may change your life. Like a cheap assistant who may be able to take a load off for you.

[Rathji]

I am the most anal person ever when it comes to promptly returning emails, and I think you have gone off the deep end.

Also, calling someone stubborn for not using texting, when you are being stubborn for not making the extra effort to even hit the shift key, is mind blowing. Not everyone has, or wants a smart phone. Not everyone has or needs a huge number of texts a month. Not everyone needs to be connected every waking second.

Get over it, or be prepared to live the rest of your life very frustrated.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Mighty Tytan

im not making fun of you, but thats the only reason i can imagine to have a functional and practicl communications tool and willfully choose to not use it.

is spelling is practicl for communication?

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

[Reggie Dunlop]

I never use the texting feature on my iPhone. I have no use for it.

If someone calls me outside of business hours, they can leave a voicemail.

I don't give people at work my home email address either, nor do I "friend" them on facebook.

Works great for me.

[pylon]

As a guy that started in the work force when a fax machine was considered leading edge stuff, I can tell you are young.

I agree modern tech is awesome for immediate communication, but the quality of it is greatly suffering. I have every mobile device, application, and gizmo possible. I have five 40" or larger flat panels in a 900 square foot condo, networked, cammed up and online. There isn't a room in my house where I am not available on skype or video net conferencing. I have an iPhone, iPad, couple laptops, you name it, I use it.

That being said, I shudder when I see the texts and emails so called young professionals are sending out nowadays. It is frankly embarrassing what texting, facebook and twitter have managed to do to the English language.

As indicated by your posts, your grammar has flown out the window. If you emailed me, as your client like you post in here, I would likely not use your $500 per hour services, as you kind of look grammatically illiterate. But to expect anyone, who didn't initiate contact first to drop everything so they can keep you in the loop is ridiculous.

As connected as I am, I do not expect, nor do any of my colleagues or clients expect me to drop everything on a whim, just to keep everyone in the loop. People have lives, that don't revolve around you or I. And taking 10 seconds to text you back, is still, intruding on my private time. And following your twitter, good luck with that. Unless you work for TSN, CNN or run a country, I am not subscribing to your feed.

I have gone so far as to get a pay as you go phone, which only my parents and closest friends have access to the number, so on Sundays, I can completely disconnect from the world, short of a medical emergency or death.

There is such a thing as being too connected, and sometimes you just need to step away from the iPhone, and shut it off for a day, as much as that may piss you off. If I lose a client over it, so be it. If they don't respect my personal time and privacy, I don't want them as customers. But for a $500 per hour hot shot like you, I am sure your clients can wait a day for a response.

[billybob123]

I'm not on Facebook or Twitter, I don't text, in fact I don't even have a cell phone.

It's hard to keep up with all that technology when I'm chasing kids off my lawn.

[Slava]

I try to reply to emails and such as soon as possible, but within reason. I use a lot of email though and like this because it doesn't intrude on people. What I mean is that they can reply when they have time. If it takes a few days then I just assume that other things have taken priority, or they have other things to do.

The other thing for me personally is that not only do I not work 24/7/365 but the people I am with physically shouldn't be subjected to me looking at emails, texts and bbms every two minutes. It's totally rude and inconsiderate! If I have a meeting or am doing something that takes a whole day and someone emails me they won't get a response until at least the end of they day....such is life. I don't sweat it and neither should people trying to reach me. It all comes down to boundaries.

[JayP]

Originally Posted by STeeLy

I feel texting, emailing, etc... loses a bit of a personal touch and you can never quite see how the other person is actually saying it.

At least a phone call you can hear their voice and maybe detects hints or sarcasm or frustration or what have you. I can't quite do that with a text.

Technology is convenient, but it's taking away from face-to-face interpersonal connection that we have. All the kids taking the bus are texting away, with their headphones plugged into something or playing on a DS or PSP or what not. I miss the days where I'd be able to meet people riding the bus

I hate this argument simply because if people were truly concerned with that "personal touch" they'd all be using the video calling that the all the new smartphones now feature (be it iPhone, Android, or Windows). Considering how much of communication is non-verbal, technology like that would clearly enhance the experience.

The concept that a phone call is better and more personal is simply a factor of people being more used to the existing technology and refusing to adapt when the new technology is clearly better is lots of circumstances. If I want to spontaneously plan a wing night one day it's a hell of a lot easier to mass text 10 people than make 10 individual calls where half of them are the other person saying "Maybe, let me check my schedule and call you back".

I think the OP's point is that you don't have to be like those 16-year old kids that text non-stop. Only that the technology is there, is readily available on any modern phone, so why not use it when it's logical as opposed to making some stand and outright ignoring it?