In this article, we’ll discuss why a voicemail greeting is important for your business and show you how to set one up with just a few simple steps.
The phone you use to record your greeting – and your surrounding – can turn your carefully scripted greeting into an unprofessional mess. Background noise is terribly distracting, so choose a quiet room or parked car to make your call. Landlines, or a “wi-fi enabled” cellphone call, can provide much better connection quality than a standard cellphone. If you must use a cell phone, be sure to use a high-quality headset for the best clarity.
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Users often don’t invest enough time into their messages, resulting in incomplete, unprofessional, or otherwise under-whelming greetings. Sure, crafting a greeting doesn’t sound all that complicated; however, there are a number of pitfalls users can fall into—i.e. informality, terseness, sincerity, lack of direction, and more. While none of these sound too catastrophic, they are often interrelated. As such, they tend to worsen any problem. For example, humor can cause informality, worsen ambiguity, and weaken sincerity. That being said, users should strive to avoid ALL these pitfalls.
And you can’t talk so fast they don’t understand you! Read on to learn more about how to make these twenty seconds count.
A general voicemail greeting is what callers will be greeted with if you are unable to answer the phone at work. It is the everyday greeting, used as the default, unless you have set up a temporary greeting, such as an away message while you're on vacation, or …
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Don’t include the date unless it’s completely necessary. 16 of the messages I heard last month had the wrong date—one of the messages had a date over 2 months old!
2. “Hi! We’re glad you called [company name]. We’re happy to help but we are either on the line with another client or on the go! Please let us know your name, number, and reason for your call today. As soon as we become available, we will call you right back. Thanks!” Ask your callers to leave a short message so you can determine when to return their call.
The above eight rules of engagement for voicemail greetings may sound easy enough, but they’ll require some practice to get just right. Let’s look at some examples to provide some context in how to apply the rules to various types of greetings and situations.
Though it may seem weird and nonsensical to you, it really works. When you smile as you speak, you are able to sound happy, cheerful, and upbeat. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.
14. "Hello, you've reached the Sales Department at [Company name]. All of our representatives are currently helping clients [insert goal such as, 'achieve 40% growth through streamlining HR operations'] and are unable to take your call. Please leave your name, company, and phone number and we'll give you a call back ASAP. Thank you!"
70% of local searches online result in a phone call; In 2014, 80% of callers sent to voicemail said they do not leave messages because they don’t think they’ll even be heard. If you want your voicemail greeting to work for you and not against you, it’s important to pay attention to the details.
How do I record my Voicemail Greeting over the Phone? Dial the Voicemail Access extension 899 (default) Enter password followed by #. Press 0 for Mailbox Options. See Also How do I record personal greetings for Voicemail Options.
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.
You have reached (Your Name) at (Your Business). I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to get to the phone. If you leave your name and number, I’ll return your call within one business day.
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.