| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: I prefer to contact people... Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "I prefer to contact people...".
View the poll results »
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 17:27
Spanish to English
+ ...
It's got to be e-mail every time for me. That way, I have a written record of the conversation. And the older I get, the less likely I am to retain information from phone calls - it basically goes in one ear and out the other.
I understood the query as referring to clients. I don't mind using phone calls or messaging with friends and family. In fact, I'm currently waiting on a couple of phone calls from my mechanic and the local computer repair shop, but the problem is that the unwa... See more It's got to be e-mail every time for me. That way, I have a written record of the conversation. And the older I get, the less likely I am to retain information from phone calls - it basically goes in one ear and out the other.
I understood the query as referring to clients. I don't mind using phone calls or messaging with friends and family. In fact, I'm currently waiting on a couple of phone calls from my mechanic and the local computer repair shop, but the problem is that the unwanted "cold calls" I so often get nowadays mean that most of the time I have my phone ringtone turned off...
[Edited at 2021-05-29 09:08 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:27
Member (2008)
Italian to English
neilmac wrote:
It's got to be e-mail every time for me. That way, I have a written record of the conversation. And the older I get, the less likely I am to retain information from phone calls - it basically goes in one ear and out the other.
Most of my phone calls are unwanted and I usually don't answer them.
Emails are much better because they can be filtered into different mailboxes and dealt with (or not). I can even train Apple Mail to instantly trash them without me even seeing them.
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It depends on what is meant by people. If it is clients, all of them, old and new, contact me by email and this is really how I prefer being contacted as it gives me time to think about what I want to say. I haven’t received a single phone call from a client for a long time (I don't usually answer phone calls from unknown numbers) and I have never been a heavy user of instant messaging. On the other hand, if it is family members, friends and other acquaintances, my preferences are: in person, ... See more It depends on what is meant by people. If it is clients, all of them, old and new, contact me by email and this is really how I prefer being contacted as it gives me time to think about what I want to say. I haven’t received a single phone call from a client for a long time (I don't usually answer phone calls from unknown numbers) and I have never been a heavy user of instant messaging. On the other hand, if it is family members, friends and other acquaintances, my preferences are: in person, by phone or text messaging. I’m not fond of social networks. I use Skype and/or Whatsapp exclusively to talk with my daughter who lives in Mexico. ▲ Collapse
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Liena Vijupe 
Latvia
Local time: 18:27
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
What people are we talking about? I prefer to contact some people in person, others by phone, e-mail or mobile messaging. I hardly use any social networks now and prefer not to contact some people at all.
| | | | Barbara Faltas
Egypt
Local time: 18:27
Member (2019)
Italian to Arabic
+ ...
| Skype or Zoom | May 29, 2021 |
If i have a problem specially if technical problem with client's CAT tool, i prefer to have a Skype or Zoom call to solve this issue ASAP. Other than that, i prefer to be contacted via E-mail.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 18:27
Member
English to Turkish
a UK agency I'd never worked for before made an overseas call to ask me if I was available for a 150 word proofreading job for the next day or the day after. It's a shame I never got another assignment from them after that one...
In person? Do people still pay a 'call' on each other after Covid?
[Edited at 2021-05-29 09:28 GMT]
| | | | | Where is the option "I prefer not to"? | May 29, 2021 |
1. It wouldn't be a ProZ poll without someone pedantically pointing out a missing option.
2. We might finally get to the bottom of whether we really are as introverted and antisocial as our reputation suggests.
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| This poll... | May 29, 2021 |
... has been asked before. More than once
| | | | Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 11:27
German to English
neilmac wrote:
It's got to be e-mail every time for me. That way, I have a written record of the conversation. And the older I get, the less likely I am to retain information from phone calls - it basically goes in one ear and out the other.
(snip)
but the problem is that the unwanted "cold calls" I so often get nowadays mean that most of the time I have my phone ringtone turned off...
[Edited at 2021-05-29 09:08 GMT]
I agree, e-mail provides a record of transactions and reduces ambiguities in discussions with customers.
I mainly retained my land line in order to send faxes, thus I abandoned this technology along with an e-fax service years ago when I realized I no longer sent or received faxes.
In the United States spam/scam calls (usually selling car maintenance insurance or offers to repair "problems" with Windows on the computer) have become a serious annoyance, and many people with mobile phones have resorted to methods of silencing calls or automatically diverting them to voice mail. In my case, only callers included in my "Contacts" can get through, and since I rarely call anyone, my phone stays silent for days at a time.
[Edited at 2021-05-29 14:40 GMT]
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That's the way current or prospective clients almost always contact me, although some have called from Ireland, England, Miami, Florida, a university somewhere in the State of New York, even China. I prefer that people contact me through e-mail, because that makes it easier for me to turn them down if they insult me by offering too low of a rate, or ask me to do an unpaid sample (one actually asked me to do 8 pages for free!) I have found that many clients who contact me by phone never want to t... See more That's the way current or prospective clients almost always contact me, although some have called from Ireland, England, Miami, Florida, a university somewhere in the State of New York, even China. I prefer that people contact me through e-mail, because that makes it easier for me to turn them down if they insult me by offering too low of a rate, or ask me to do an unpaid sample (one actually asked me to do 8 pages for free!) I have found that many clients who contact me by phone never want to take "no" for an answer. Their behavior has often seemed coercive to me, when, since I'm a freelancer, I don't have to work for anyone or on any project if I don't want to.
[Edited at 2021-05-29 15:27 GMT]
[Edited at 2021-05-29 15:28 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 17:27
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| + another option | May 29, 2021 |
Ice Scream wrote:
1. It wouldn't be a ProZ poll without someone pedantically pointing out a missing option.
2. We might finally get to the bottom of whether we really are as introverted and antisocial as our reputation suggests.
3. Someone engaging in a long-winded dialectical monologue about what one of the words from the poll means, could mean, or the hidden ambiguities in the word.
[Edited at 2021-05-29 20:16 GMT]
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Barbara Cochran, MFA wrote:
I Prefer To Contact People Using Initial Capitals
Sorry, I’m bored
| | | | | Have You Thoight Of Doing This Instead Of Feeling Bored/Posting On Forums? | May 29, 2021 |
Ice Scream wrote: Barbara Cochran, MFA wrote:
I Prefer To Contact People Using Initial Capitals Sorry, I’m bored
Rather than feeling bored, why don't you take some initiative by spending your time on marketing your services through e-mails, so that you will be compelled to leave that feeling behind (at least temporarily), to try to find projects that might even turn out to be interesting, or not all that boring, in and of themselves, and maybe even lucrative?
I meant to ask you, are you one of those bored rich people, with plenty of money in their hands, but as it usually turns out in such cases, too much time on them?
You, of course, don't have to respond if you don't want to, because what is or isn't in your bank account is not really anyone's, including my business.
[Edited at 2021-05-29 19:13 GMT]
[Edited at 2021-05-29 19:33 GMT]
[Edited at 2021-05-30 01:22 GMT]
[Edited at 2021-05-30 01:23 GMT]
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Assuming that the question is referring to clients--mainly, of course, for the written record. And efficiency: Phone calls tend to eat up valuable time. These reasons are true for me now more than ever. I have become quite deaf and phone calls are difficult to hear even with the best of hearing aids. Throw in a "foreign" accent, and I'm completely lost. Fortunately, my clients always contact me via email.
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