My friend Tom at Bottomline Technologies was running a sales team making thousands of phone calls a week, developing the art of the sales voicemail.. Despite all their best efforts, his sales reps were only connecting with prospects 3% of the time since 97% of the time, they had no choice but to leave a voicemail. In a typical week, those voicemails could generate a grand total of one returned
Sign up for my blog updates and never miss a post. My sales and time management tips are always FREE and you can unsubscribe at any time.
.
Your message is a period of time that they are forced to wait through in order to do what they called to do in the first place — relay information to you.
Instead of you making your clients and customers sit through an Interactive Voice Response (IVR menu) so they may be directed to the person they would like to talk to, try to make fewer hurdles and steps for your customers.
Elements of a Good Business Voicemail Greeting. Typically, a good business voicemail greeting should comprise the following elements: A warm greeting. Your name, the name of your company and department name. Make an apology for being unable to take the call. Ask the caller to leave a message. Let the caller know when to expect a return call.
Hello, you have reached X (service provider). Unfortunately, all our agents are engaged in talking to other customers. You can stay online or to resolve something urgent, try our live chat service. You also have the option of leaving your name, ID and number and our agents will revert to you at the earliest.
9. "Hey, this is [your name]. Thanks for reaching out. I'm busy at the moment, but if you leave your name, number, and message, I'll return your call.”
1. Share basic information: “Hello! You’ve reached the voicemail of [your name], [your job title]. I’m currently either away from my desk or on the other line.
If anything big changes- address, phone, etc.- make sure you correct your voicemail early on. Keep It Short; We know, we know. We just gave you all this information and we’re now telling you to ‘keep it short‘. But, a professional voicemail greeting (or any for that matter) shouldn’t go beyond 20-25 seconds.
7. "Hello, this is [your name] at [company]. Thanks for calling. Please leave your name, number, and the reason you'd like to chat, and I'll get back to you ASAP."
20 Creative and Funny Voicemail Greetings to Try Today. Hello. I’m available right now but cannot find the phone. Please leave a message and I will call you up as soon as I find it. Hi, this is [ your name ]. If you’re part of the problem, hang up …
If you don’t feel confident and prepared, how are you supposed to leave a voicemail that gets a reply? When it comes to how to leave a professional voicemail that’ll get a response, we’ve got you covered.
Dexcomm is a Louisiana-based corporation that provides answering services to businesses and service agencies across the United States. We have been open since 1954, employ a staff of roughly 50 people, and our average client retention rate is 10+ years. 4 Reasons Why a RN Developed Training Program is Critical for Your Medical Answering Service Communicating With Senior Patients: Tips for Your Medical Office Staff 3 Call Scripts Your Business Can Use to Drive Appointments and Upsell Customers About Services Industry Solutions Plans & Pricing Resources Get A Quote
Humor also leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation—which subsequently weakens sincerity and authority. A caller can be very turned off by merely misinterpreting your joke. Why take this risk? Additionally, this could even cause callers to question your character. Say, for example, the president of a company’s mobile phone voicemail greeting was funny. What’s to happen if the caller didn’t like or get the joke? What if they found it offensive? Another scenario is that a caller is reaching out to you for the first time—i.e. they have no idea regarding your personality. What next? The point is, with this type of greeting, humor is bound to be more divisive so just avoid it altogether. c. Poorly Pacing Your Message and Bad Time Management: Don’t speed through your message. Speak clearly so callers know what to include in their message and when to leave the message. At the same time, don’t drag your message out. No one wants to sit through a diatribe. Just get to the point clearly.
The simple truth is that you need to be more aware of what you’re leaving for other people to hear. Sure, this doesn’t always register as a priority for users, but it’s never too late to reassess your greeting. a. Reading/Speaking in the Imperfect Tone: Tone is absolutely everything. Users don’t want to come off as being too nice, as it sounds insincere, or being too terse, as it can be interpreted as being rude. That being said, striking the right balance is absolutely essential. Your greeting exists as its own entity, and therefore, it should NOT rely on callers’ familiarity with you. Instead, it needs to appeal to the masses. As such, your inflection, i.e. the way you state your name and directions, needs to be both welcoming and firm. b. Injecting Humor & Insincerity: While humor/light heartedness can be welcoming, it can also convey a sense of informality, insincerity, and ultimately unprofessionalism. Why, because you’re not there to lend your humor or to contextualize. Instead, you’re assuming the caller has a working knowledge of your personality to ground the message. Though this might not sound like it’s all that terrible—it can be detrimental. As stated above, one should NEVER rely on a caller’s familiarity with you. Instead, aim to appeal to the masses. Humor is ultimately subjective, meaning not everyone has the same tastes; therefore, someone is bound to be turned off by a quirky or off-color remark. While implementing a light-hearted or even tongue and cheek tone can work, it’s just a really bad idea.
When was the last time you checked your voicemail for missed messages and paid attention to your greeting? If you’ve activated your Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone’s voicemail transcription feature for convenience, chances are it’s been ages since you last listened to your voicemail greeting. So it's probably time that you took the time to update it for your callers.
By submitting this form, you agree that ActiveCampaign may send you promotional emails about our products and services. You can unsubscribe at any time, free of charge. View our Privacy Policy.