I am not a voice talent, and I hate the sound of my own voice. Every time I lose my cell phone (daily), I call it from another line to help myself find it. And every time I do this, I wish my voicemail message sounded…different. I’m always reminded that I should sit down and rerecord it, so it makes a more professional first impression.
We’re keeping it simple with this one. Just a few basic elements to help you get started. As long as you know who your audience is, the message you wish to convey, and the information you need from the caller, the rest should fall into place quite nicely. Let’s face it, a voicemail greeting for a lumber company will probably be different than that of a psychologist’s office. One greeting is aimed at securing potential customers, and the other is geared towards appointments, more or less. Once you are certain who your caller is, the better your voicemail. Center on your audience, first and foremost. Knowing what to relate ensures that your caller will leave the right message. For instance, if you’re a retail store, you would include your hours of operations, and perhaps any specials that you’re running. If you are a therapist’s office, then you’d need to include an alternate number in case a patient is having an issue and requires immediate help. Again, this will vary depending on the business. Here, a therapist would definitely request the caller leave their contact information. However, a retail store chain might not request that. There are also complex voicemail systems such as those used by mobile phone services, which ask you to press a certain number on your phone, where you are asked to leave your account information. Again, as you can see, it all boils down to the demographics of your callers, and what you need from them to conduct the best business possible. Depending on the situation, your caller might be in a good mood or not. In either case, they’ll probably be eagerly awaiting your call. So, it stands to reason that you only promise them a call back if you can deliver. In other words, if you’re a small shop and you’ve decided to close due to a much-needed sabbatical, then don’t leave a voicemail greeting where you promise them to call right back. However, if you have an active customer service staff, then you can promise to return their call within the same day.

A voicemail and voicemail greeting are two different things. A voicemail serves to leave a message and contact information to an individual or business. A voicemail greeting serves to welcome those who call while you are out, encouraging them to leave a message and contact information. A well-crafted voicemail greeting also serves as a tool where one can leave a good first impression.
A proper voicemail greeting plays an important role in putting a positive or negative impression on your callers. Try being a caller for a second and think, you have called someone and he/she is not available. What do you except from his/her voicemail? All the things that you can think of should be present in your voicemail. If you come up with many ideas, write them down and see which one sounds better. PROFESSIONAL VOICEMAILS • Hello, you have reached XYZ’s voicemail, I am not available at the present moment, but if you leave your name, number and a short message I’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.