07Thank you for calling [business name]. I’m out assisting other clients with their goals, at the moment, but look forward to attending to you. Please leave a message and I’ll return your call within one business day. To schedule an appointment press 1. This is an example of an industry-specific voicemail greeting. This voicemail gives specific and clear instructions to the callers.
The above section details types of phrasing to avoid; however, it doesn’t detail what users should NOT say on their greeting. Though this is a bit loaded, as there are hundreds of combinations of things one shouldn’t say, there are some key components users should ALWAYS avoid. a. Forget About Slang: You should strive to be as professional and welcoming as possible in your greeting. While this may steer you towards using slang, in an attempt to make callers comfortable, it’ll most likely work against you. As a professional, your demeanor, tone, and speech should be clear cut and well articulated. Using slang undercuts this and works against you. b. Don’t Even Think About Profanity: This is a no-brainer. Never, under any circumstances, curse in your greeting EVER! c. Keep Your Sentences Clean, Don’t Ramble: Introduce yourself and give your caller specific direction. Avoid long diatribes detailing tangent thoughts. Keep it simple and quick. d. Always Return Your Calls: It’s important for callers to feel they are valued. Nothing dissolves this quicker than a greeting that doesn’t stress this. For example, “I’ll call you when I can,” “If I don’t return your call, please call back”—these phrases are terrible and completely destroy any good will you may have with a caller.
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You have reached (Your Name) at (Your Business). We help (What Your Business Does). I wasn’t able to take your call right now, but leave your name and number and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Some people try to get really fancy with their voice mail greetings and they will put the current date on their message. This requires you to update your voice mail greeting daily. This level of customization is completely unnecessary and often leads to problems when the user forgets to update the actual date itself. However, updating your outgoing voice mail message to reflect a particular season or holiday can be a nice touch as long as you remember to change it accordingly.
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Almost 70% of Americans say that it’s their general practice to not answer the phone. At some point or another, you’re going to have no choice but to leave a voicemail for your clients. Here’s how to do it in a HIPAA compliant way.
OpenPhone is a modern business phone service app for startups, small businesses, and individuals. OpenPhone separates your professional and personal communications and enables you to personalize your number to reflect your own brand. Use your business number directly from your existing cell phone!
You should also aim to refresh your voicemail greeting in English every year. It’s likely that your pronunciation skills will improve and change over time – especially if you are taking online training like ours! So it is a good idea to refresh your English voicemail greeting regularly. When it’s time to refresh it and it’s time to record a voicemail greeting, revise our video. Each time you watch it, you’ll pick up more tips and improve your pronunciation skills.
Of course, yours may need more details. But, even if you’re changing your outgoing message every day, it should only be a slight variation from a standard greeting.
In today’s digital-first world, it can be extremely easy to treat things like your business voicemail as an afterthought. Your voicemail has the potential to communicate so much more effectively than its digital counterpart.
Hello. You’ve reached the offices of [Business Name]. At present, our office is closed for repairs. However, you may reach us at our temporary location, at 555-555-3432. There, we will be able to pick up your call, 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. Thank you.
“Thank you for calling (your name), voted your #1 realtor in (insert county name). I’m either away from my desk or helping another customer find their dream home. Please leave your name and number, and I’ll be sure to return your call as soon as possible.”
What kind of company do you run? A law firm may prefer more formal business voicemail greetings than a trendy retail store, for example.
2. "Hi, you've reached [name] at [company]. If you need a quick response, please shoot me an email at [insert email address] and I'll be in touch by EOD tomorrow.
This means you’re contacting the prospect in multiple ways and increasing your chances of somehow getting a response — Whether it’s via phone or another way.
25. "Hello! Thanks for reaching out to [company]. We're closed today for the holiday, and will reopen tomorrow. If you leave your name, number, and a brief message, we'll give you a call when we're back in the office. Thanks again, and have a great day."
For example, a message like, “Hi, this is Jim. You know what to do.” Well, not everyone is going to know what to do—i.e. they won’t leave you inclusive information. Additionally, they may not leave you a message at all. Aside from this, humor can again be detrimental to your message, this time lending itself to ambiguity and costing you clarity. For example, if a message read, “Hi this is Jim, sorry I can’t answer your call right now. Please leave your name and number and I’ll call you as soon as I can, but you already knew that right? Do I need to tell you what to do?” This is worse than the previous example as this is confusing and can also come across as rude and unprofessional. Complicating a greeting with phrasing like this is sure to cause some harm. e. Ignoring Personality & Identity: Don’t use computer generated greetings. Some users leave default messages (‘you’ve reached the voicemail box of 777-777-777, please leave a message). Believe it or not, even this can cause problems. Callers may be unsure if the voicemail box belongs to you; therefore, they don’t leave a message. Also, some may even be uncomfortable leaving information through a message in a nameless voice message box. As such, impersonalization can cause ambiguity, which again can hurt the effectiveness of your voice message system. This doesn’t mean you have to make an elaborate greeting if you don’t want to, just insert your voice and name so at least callers know they’re calling the right person.