Voicemail is becoming an old-fashioned piece of technology, or at least that's the philosophy of Coca- Cola, who cut its ties with voice mail earlier this month.
The decision came from Coke executives who were looking "to simplify the way we work and increase productivity." The news of the death of voice mail at Coca-Cola came in an internal memo from Chief Information Officer Ed Steinike, reported Bloomberg.
Coca-Cola workers still answer phone calls, but if they are away from their desk when callers ring them, callers will get a standard message that says to call back later or try an "alternate method" to contact.
Although the company is looking to cut $3 billion in annual expenses by 2019, the removal of voice mail usage apparently had little to do with finances. Coke spokeswoman Amanda Rosseter told Bloomberg the elimination of voice mail will save the company less than $100,000 per year. She reiterated the memo, saying Coca-Cola's decision had more to do with simplifying work.
Michael Schrage, a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management's Center for Digital Business, told Bloomberg Coca-Cola's move to get rid of voice mail makes sense because less and less young people are using it anyway.
"People north of 40 are schizophrenic about voice mail," he said. "People under 35 scarcely ever use it."
