I've decided that if i were to ever get a cell phone, it should have all the features i want. There is, however, one feature i would want that i'm not sure i've seen any current cell phone do. I want to be able to answer an incoming call and place it on hold without having to actually say "hello."
That may sound odd, but here's where it could come in handy. Once a cell phone starts ringing, the answered has a limited amount of time to pick up the phone, typically because voicemail will kick in or the caller will assume the callee is unavailable. I've often seen people running out of a room to answer a call in time and not disturb those around them, or still others abruptly discontinue a conversation in progress to answer a call. Let's say that there's another button an the phone to answer to hold. When getting a call, you press the button and the person on the other end of the line hears a recorded message saying something like "hi, this is matthew. I'll be right with you. In the mean time please enjoy my hold music" and then an instrumental version of The Girl From Ipanema would softly play. That way, they know you are there and want to take their call, but you get the extra time you need to disengage from what ever you were doing without being overly rude. Perhaps they could have the option of pressing 1 to just leave a voicemail if you leave them on hold for too long.
Am i the only one who thinks this is a good idea? Do any phones currently do this? Pardon me while i go patent my idea.
Posted by Matthew at August 1, 2005 11:08 PMNo thanks. I rarely want to talk with anyone badly enough to sit through them putting me on hold before even saying "hello." I imagine saying to myself, "Are you sh****ng me!?" and hanging up. Or maybe leaving a voicemail saying "Hi, this is Jack. Hang on a sec...[very long pause]...okay, call me back would ya?"
Posted by: Jack at August 2, 2005 09:09 PMI understand what you're saying Jack, but I think waiting in that case would be acceptable. I suppose my philosophy is based on the fact that that the person receiving the call is the one actually paying to have a cell phone. The cell phone should therefore serve his needs first and foremost. I assume that when you call someone, you actually want to talk to them and would be willing to wait a little bit longer than normal to actually make contact. What if i simply changed my hold music to the sound of a phone ringing? In that way, the caller doesn't even have to know they've been put on hold but it would still give the call receiver extra time to answer the phone.
I realize that some of the things i've assumed may not necessarily be true. First, i've assumed that you actually want to talk to the person you are calling. I realize that this isn't always the case. Sometimes i would rather just leave a voicemail than talk to someone but most service plans don't allow this. You simply get one phone number and voicemail is a backup. I think it should be easier to go right to someone's voicemail. I still feel, however, that if you really wanted to talk to that person, you would rather wait longer when you know that person is available than play a game of phone tag. Secondly, i've given importance to the fact that a person has chosen to purchase and use a cell phone. Perhaps this is becoming less of a choice and more of a necessity. When you do have a call phone, i think callers expect you to be more available. There's an implied commitment that you will be more likely to answer the phone. I just think that there must be something that can be done to help make fulfilling that commitment less disruptive to one's normal life.
Posted by: Matthew at August 3, 2005 09:40 AM