Voicemail

This experience comes from my career in the corporate industry. I had joined a new company. Unfortunately I was a place today in the project that was under a lot of pressure and scrutiny. When I joined I was told that the client is unhappy with the work. I also was informed that by recruiting new people like me the management is trying to impress the client and win back the lost trust. It is needless to say that the stakes were high. The pressure that had put on me was tremendous. I was trying my best to live up to the expectations. I had work in corporate before so I was aware of the pressure and I also new how to handle it. I was not afraid or worried about the pressure that was being put on me. But suddenly I was exposed to a new experience.

Being in the corporate I had spoken several times on the calls with customers. I had been in the customer of facing role and was very comfortable in speaking with our clients. I never had any problem with the accents. Also I was considered a medium paced speaker hence the clients also never had any problem in understanding my speech. I was good at communication and building report hence all the calls which I would have with my customer stay holders would always be good. In my new company the management had seen my communication skills and hence they had decided to give this responsibility to me. This responsibility was leaving the voice mails to the stakeholders. Now this responsibility did not automatically come to me. Something happened that led to giving me this responsibility entirely.

In my project we had to follow up with our stakeholders. The preferred way for following up was via emails. Yet there have been several instances when we had seen that despite of several emails this stakeholders do not respond. The management had highlighted this concern to the primary point of contact from the customer's end. They had suggested to leave voice mails to the stakeholders. Now this was a new activity which nobody had done in the project. It was given to me and one of my other colleagues. This was the first time I was doing such task. I was excited but little worried too. I was worried because it would have been a disappointment if I was unable to produce the results. Though I was not scared but I was little nervous to take this task. I took a deep breath hoping for the best outcome.

Me and my colleague started connecting with the stake holders. My colleague had left some voicemails where as I left some voicemails. We were told to see the results for one day. The results came in next day after leaving the voicemail. The stakeholders to home I had a left voice mails promptly responded. They apologized for not responding earlier and also for the delay. Where has people to whom my friend had left voice mails receive angry responses. Stakeholders had written flame emails.

Because of this varied response the management decided to review the voice mails that we had left. The difference was very clear. I am a soft spoken person. My voice also is soft and on lower register. When the management heard voice mails that I had left they found out that in my voicemails I had made polite requests. Where as in case of my colleagues it appeared as if she was angry and she had left voice mail with an angry tone. Apparently that resulted in receiving the angry responses from the stakeholders. I was surprised to receive the positive reaction. I was glad that I was able to win over the management as well as the stakeholders. In new company it became my first achievement and I was glad that I got an opportunity to be highlighted in front of the management. I was thrilled with the praise that I had received. I was happy for being recognized. This was my first success in the new project.

This is how I received the responsibility of leaving voicemails to the stakeholders. I completely attribute it to my polite way of speaking and soft voice. I feel that whenever we are speaking with anyone if we speak softly and politely we would get the work done. I really have to raise my voice to tell anybody to do something for me. Polite request always work for me. This is my mantra and lesson for life. Speak politely and it will be done.