Calling Me
My contact page lists three of my phone numbers. I take calls on my mobile phone once I have the number you are calling from or prior information of receiving a call. This is to avoid invasion of privacy and interruption which is too easy. My residential phone number is usually only for taking messages while I am otherwise unreachable. If I am unavailable for an appointment or a scheduled call, then my Emergency contact phone number can be used. It is unusual for me to be unavailable at a time I am expecting a call. It is likely that the telecom network is busy and the emergency number allows for an alternate route at such junctures.
Priority of Communication Response
This is how I prioritize communications and my response to them. one(1) being higher priority and ten(12) being the lowest priority.
- Question/Conversation/Request in person
- Phone Call to Handphone
- Phone Call to Residence - leave a message or find my whereabouts
- Instant Message to one of my IM accounts - response guaranteed if this is setup by e-mail
- SMS to Handphone
- email "To" me - checked regularly and responded within 24hrs unless I am traveling.
- email "Cc" me requesting me to respond
- snail mail to my residence
- SMS to Residence phone
- Message on a mailing list requiring my response
- Newspaper/Daily/Magazine announcement requiring my response
- Message to an acquaintance to be relayed to me
I have devoted time to list my priorities because communication plays a vital role in any transaction. Consulting being a service related transaction relies heavily upon communication and the understanding of communication. SMSes are not sent with a realtime messaging protocol. Servers may queue up SMSes and send them based on load in pre-defined (sometimes even reverse) queue sequences. Please don't get wild at me for not responding to an SMS. There are many cases when SMSes never reach the destination and the possibility of this is higher if your SMSing(/texting) another service provider/country. As for voice calls, the only way they don't work is if I am in a meeting (I would call back), or I am out of mobile coverage range or I have a mobile phone or network malfunction.
Privacy
I have the habit of keeping logged records of most conversations I have online, and minute meetings (in person, including some over the phone or otherwise) most of the time. If you are communicating with me, please know that this is only for my private records and will not be accessible to anyone else but me. I ensure that the emails are secure. For my part of the conversation I might include a Disclaimer and in some cases a Copyright notice. Most of my e-mail correspondence usually contains a both a copyright notice and a disclaimer as a safeguard unless the message is casual.
How can you report any communication problems in reaching me or repeated mails or such issues?
If you have received multiple copies of the same e-mail from me, it's quite likely I'm having some e-mail client or e-mail daemon trouble. Please inform me immediately and I will resolve the issue. (and yes, I can't stop you from getting wild!) My private e-mail usually works. It is accessible as admin at sunilbetabaskar dot com in case other e-mail communication is not working. If it's not the e-mail that's the issue, please send me one to tell me that you couldn't reach me with some information. I shall get back to you. I may disclose additional phone lines and e-mail addresses to you which I would expect you to keep private unless I explicitly allow you to pass on or publish such information. I shall ensure that all contact information shared with me is kept private and is given due security.
