The voicemail greeting is an important element of your business’ phone system because it is often the first impression of your business that customers will have. Creating a really good voicemail greeting is a unique opportunity that you can use to impress customers by putting your best face on, while increasing the chances that you’ll retain their business in those times when you can’t
Another advantage of creating a professional voicemail greeting is that it reassures callers that they dialed the correct number, reducing the number of wasted messages and hang-ups. It is essential to create a greeting that is professional, brief, and engaging. Here are several tips to consider when setting up a professional voicemail greeting
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e. Never Assume Anything: Phrases like “You Know What To Do,” “Sing Your Song at the Beep,” and others mentioned above are awful to leave in your greeting. For the sake of universality and comprehensiveness, NEVER assume the caller knows what to do. Lay it out clearly. f. Leave a Message: This phrase, by itself, will not do. It’s imperative for users to identify themselves in their greetings. Callers need to know they’ve reached the right person. g. Disregard Lethargy: If you’re not excited about your greeting, why would anyone else be? Never display a lack of enthusiasm in your greeting as it could turn callers off to both you and your business. h. Speak Clearly and Never Slur: Callers need to understand your every word; therefore, mumbling, slurring, and all other detractions of speech should never be recorded. d. Be Creative Without Sacrificing Quality: Callers know how voicemails work–i.e. leave a number, message, etc. While you want to be clear, it’s important not to be contrive or redundant with your message. Creativity can help users to differentiate themselves, as well as intrigue callers. While users should avoid the tropes of creativity listed above, it’s definitely good to think outside the box. That being said, scripting and practice can help users to experiment more with their greeting–ultimately allowing for more unique and creative approach. e. Speak With Diction: It’s important to present one’s self as an authority without alienating callers. As such, it’s crucial to articulate and speak with clear diction. “ if your voice recording has you stumbling over words and speaking haltingly, it does not convey confidence and competence,” states Ron Sellers of Grey Matter Research & Consulting. Remember, this greeting represents you; therefore, you want to appear collected and professional, as well as welcoming. To do this, one must carry themselves well through their recorded message. f. Account for Timeliness: Your message should be concise. No caller wants to be sitting through a rant/diatribe of redundant statements. Your greeting should flow without dragging. Inversely, one doesn’t want to be terse, either. Engage callers with a simplified approach laden with creativity. h. Account for Quality: Aside from speaking clearly, users want to eliminate any noise in the surrounding environment. The quality of the greeting is just as important as what’s being said in the greeting itself. As such, one doesn’t want to undermine a great message with poor quality. i. Courtesy, Tastefulness, & Tact: This is pretty self-explanatory and straight forward–NEVER be rude. Being light-hearted and humorous is very different from being obnoxious and/or abrasive. Again, these tools can be helpful if utilized properly, but not everyone perceives humor the same way. So play it safe. The last thing your voicemail greeting should do is offend a caller. k. Provide Options: if you’re part of a bigger company, it might be good to offer caller options. For example, allow a menu to defer callers to a colleague or co-worker in your absence. This can help show callers you care about their well being. Another option might be offering different modes of communication–i.e. email, fax, etc. In offering users diversity, contact may be much easier to maintain.
You’re growing tired. Your eyelids are getting heavy. You feel very sleepy now. You are gradually losing your willpower and your ability to resist suggestions. When you hear the tone you will feel helplessly compelled to leave your name, number, and a message.
It is so important for a professional business to respond to your potential and existing customers as soon as possible. If you are running a professional business, you must make your customers feel safe. You may ensure this by answering their questions as quickly as possible and always ready to negotiate. But, what if you can not answer their phone calls instantly. In such cases, you should ensure the opportunity for your customers to leave a message. For this, you must have a voicemail greetings system where your customers may leave you a message.
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So, I finally did it. Here’s my process for developing a professional voicemail message in 10 steps:
These of course are very basic templates. Feel free to make your voicemail fit you — just keep it professional. Good luck! Looking for an Internship? See if Uloop can help you find an internship. Apply to Write for Uloop News Join the Uloop News Team 4 Way To Balance Work and College By Bethany Fischer College takes up a lot of time. Some students choose to dedicate all of their time to studying, without getting a... 4 Ways You Can Stand Out in a Job Interview By Alicia Geigel When applying for jobs, we have a desperate need to do anything we can to stand out. Creating an attractive resume,... The Trend—Fall Cover Ups By Gilmarie Brioso Image by voldie81 Winter is coming! Well actually, Fall is; but I just had to make a Game of Thrones reference. The ...
Don’t leave customers and colleagues on edge. If you say you’re going to call them back, follow up. If you tend to fall behind in this area, encourage them to email you or reach out in another way. Better yet, learn how to forward voicemail to email so you can access the message anywhere.
If you are using CISCO as your phone system for your business, you can get professional voice recordings for your Cisco phone greetings and messages from Macryn Voice Greetings!We can record a custom voicemail greeting, after hours messages, automated attendant messages, IVR Voice Prompts and Music with Messages while your callers are placed On-Hold.
9. Outgoing Message with Samuel L. Jackson Treatment. Stephen Colbert asked Samuel L. Jackson to record his infamous voice on his outgoing message recording.
41. Hello, you’ve reached [X company]. Leave a message so we can call you back as soon as our team has a spare moment.
Before any business can create clear, easy to hear (and understand) recorded audio messages, they need the right recording equipment. Many businesses try to get by with using audio recorded on a standard recording device.
While straightforward is always the safe bet, certain entities can go to the humorous side of voicemail greetings. Before taking this route, consider the type of callers and the persona the recipient is trying to convey. Since (insert name) isn’t available at the moment to take your call, but will promptly return it should you decide to accept your mission and leave your name and number, we have a very important question to occupy you in the meantime. Why did the chicken cross the road? Voicemail Greetings For Vacation
Magic numbers for timing your voicemail in the industry average around 20 seconds per message.
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 a …
8. Select a standard greeting, or create a custom one. You will usually be given the choice to either select a standard greeting or record a custom one.