Good voicemail greetings should include your name and/or company, your reason for missing the call or an apology, and instructions for leaving a message. How to Turn Your Customer Complaints into Business Benefits 50% of Business Owners Over 50 Back Trump's National Emergency Declaration How Zoho Bookings Helps Your Business Grow Square Seller Fees Stay Consistent as PayPal, Venmo Raise Rates Sponsored by Square Use Emojis in your Business Communications? Than Check Out These! How Can Your Alma Mater Help Your Small Business? Annie Pilon is a Senior Staff Writer for Small Business Trends, covering entrepreneur profiles, interviews, feature stories, community news and in-depth, expert-based guides. When she’s not writing she can be found on her personal blog Wattlebird, and exploring all that her home state of Michigan has to offer. Small Business Trends is an award-winning online publication for small business owners, entrepreneurs and the people who interact with them. Our mission is to bring you "Small business success, delivered daily."
In previous blogs, I’ve mentioned the importance of making a good first impression on a potential client. Most of the time, the first contact will be over the telephone. Since we are often in session, it is very likely that the first time a client hears our voice is on our voicemail greeting. This is why a professional greeting is so important. Identify yourself because you need to reassure the client that they have called the correct number. Clients will be a lot less likely to leave a message if they wonder who will get it. Use a warm friendly voice to say something like, “You have reached xxxx, licensed mental health counselor.” Tell clients what to do if they are in crisis. Although it seems obvious to us, clients may not realize that it could be several hours until we can return their call. I suggest something like, “If you require immediate assistance, please dial 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.” Ask for what information you need. Yes, the obvious name and number, but if it would be helpful to get their insurance information, ask for that, too. Give clients an idea about when you’ll return their call. Common business practice is within 24 business hours. Any extra messages or information you’d like clients to know. For example, if you are no longer accepting a particular insurance plan, the end of your voicemail greeting is a great place to convey that information.
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Thank you for calling. You have reached (Your Name) at (Your Business). Please leave your name, number, and a brief message and I’ll return your call as soon as possible.
Thanks for calling Dial-A-Shrink. I can’t come to the phone right now, so after the tone, please leave your name and number, then talk briefly about your childhood and tell me what comes to mind when you hear the following words: orange… mother… unicorn… penis. I’ll get back to you with my diagnosis as soon as possible.
Should you need any further assistance with after hour patient services, please do not hesitate to contact us.
To create a professional business voicemail greeting, businesses need to do several things:
If you only check and return messages once a day or once a week, let your caller know. This will avoid multiple messages by the same caller.
As the odds of receiving a call back from your voicemail message are already low, you need to be very specific about what you say in your voicemail to give you the greatest chance of getting a call back. What you absolutely do NOT want to do is make yourself sound like a salesperson making a cold call. Instead, you want to sound like a very confident business colleague who deserves the respect of getting a call back.
Tip: write down what you’d like to say, and then read it when you are recording your greeting. Try not to speak too quickly. Then, play the recording back to make sure you like how it sounds. Working in Community Mental Health with Katie Fleming: Ep. 22 Podcast Top 50 Counseling Blogs Counseling Resources 50 Free Open Courseware Classes About Psychology and the Human Brain Education Psychology 18 Beautiful Infographics About the Human Brain Brain Psychology
The voicemail. This technology is often shunned by the younger generation in favour of texts or emails but it still plays an important part in our professional communication. Whether you’re interested in a job opportunity, following up with a company, or calling in sick for work, leaving a voicemail message is likely to be something that you will have to do often throughout your job search and career.
https://www.onsip.com/voip-resources/smb-tips/10-sample-call-center-greeting-scripts
The phrase ‘Your call is important to us’ is very overused and can sometimes come off as insincere. Instead your professional voicemail greeting should say something like ‘We appreciate your call and look forward to speaking with you soon.’
One of the things to remember before recording your business voicemail greetings is to identify your pain points. This will help you to state more clearly for your clients in leaving enough context when leaving a voicemail.
That’s the simple structure of a voicemail greeting. Overall, your greeting should be professional, but the wording can vary depending on the situation. Check out a sample below.
On this page, we’ve provided some script samples and templates of voicemail greetings and auto attendant messages you can use for your business phone, VOIP service, PBX/PABX system as well as cell/mobile/smart phone greetings. If you need help writing your phone scripts and greetings or want to have your phone recordings professionally recorded by a professional voice talent, contact Macryn
Hi there! You’ve reached [LinkedPhone – Where Freedom Rings!] We’re away at the moment but please leave your name, number, and let us know how we can help you. We’ll make sure the right team gets back to you within [the next 24 hours]. We appreciate your call. Thank you.
Ideally, a business should have a complete set of messages for every phase of their call flow from beginning to end. While voicemail greetings are an important part of the phone system, there need to be recordings for everything leading up to the voicemail as well (assuming there are other steps in the call flow).