The Wire (and Wirefree) Voice Culture

A whilst back we saw a few points about Elevators and good practices. In this one let us see a few points of the best ways to use the phone.

1. It is always a wiser practice to ensure that the call is answered in less than four rings. Eight rings constitute a full reach-attempt in a typical telephone system.
2. When you are in a meeting or at desk where the ringtone and/or mobile is going to be a source of distraction or disturbance it would be better to turn it off or make it in the 'Silent' mode. When I say 'silent' I am typically making a difference from even the 'Vibrate' mode. A lot of phones have a buggy implementation of Vibrate mode and they give a more disgusting fart-type sound.
3. When you promise a call-back it would be wiser to return the call as soon as possible. If not possible at least text them and inform the caller. If you are not willing to prolong the communication with the caller it would be wiser to give an upfront intimation to them rather than giving a false and/or a mis-guidance. 
4. When you are confronted with a voice message system ensure that you leave a word. Empty voice messages are very much irritating to anyone. When you are confronted with a voice messaging systems it is more likely that you have been charged anyway for the call and hence it would be wiser at least to complete a half-duplex communication rather than waiting for an utopian full-duplex answer-back. It also helps the callee because when they check the voice message they are paying for the access of the same and it particularly drives them crazy to witness a few crop-dusted missed calls without comprehensible messages.
5. When you leave voice message please ensure you speak clearly and audibly. These days there are sophisticated voice message systems that can transcribe and text the callee to workaround costly and cumbersome voice mail access. Machine transcriptions can become hilarious if you are not clearer. It is also a voice exercise for you on how much speech clarity that you possess and you can use this exercise to improve yourself. 
6. When a call to your callee is not answered it is wiser to leave a few minutes gap before attempting again rather than causing a spurt of calls like a shower of arrows from the quiver in one shot. It may that the callee is not in a situation to answer out the call or the battery might not be able to withstand voice calls. If repeat calls are not being answered it would be wiser to leave a quick, nice and brief text or voice message informing the purpose of the call along with adding a callback number and priority of the call attempt.
7. Ensure that your ring-back  and ringtones are polite. A horrifying b-grade romantic music can be  adding color to your private living room whereas the same broadcasted on the phone effectively pollutes the entire environment.
8. Mind your volume of the ring and the voice. A very slow volume might ambiguate the call quality and a very high volume again contributes to polluting the environment.

Just thought would share these few tidbits on phone culture. Feel free to share /discuss/add to the same.