Doing this helps you understand what the prospects are looking for and what they are expecting from you which will in turn help you to cater to them better.
Many businesses want to sound professional and, as a result, end up creating boring, monotonous, and overly generic messages such as: “Hi, this is Joe. I’m either on the phone or away from my desk. Please leave me a message.”
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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.
A professional voicemail greeting is a recorded message that welcomes callers to your business when no one is available to pick up the call. For a polished call experience, the greeting should reflect who the client is calling – whether a general business number, department, team, or individual – and when the customer can expect the call to be returned.
As I mentioned above, some words like ‘can’t’ are often mispronounced by non-native speakers and it can sound like a swear word!
Professional Voicemail Greetings. 23. Hello, thank you for calling [business name]. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message, and a …
• Hello. You’ve reached XYZ in (name of department). I am in a meeting and cannot take your call right now, so please leave me a message after the beep.
We’re all familiar with this type of voicemail greeting. Simply put, a caller reaches you by dialing your number or extension directly. For an optimal personal voicemail greeting, be clear about who you are, the team you’re on, and when the caller can expect a callback. Unlike company and department voicemail greetings, you may not be able to configure a greeting for open and closed business hours. If that’s the case, use a general voicemail greeting that accommodates both scenarios.
21. Hello, this is [your name]. I’m not much of a phone person, so don’t bother leaving a message. Send me an email at [email address] and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
Do you speak a second language and serve customers in an area that primarily uses a language other than English? Make it known that you speak both languages. Start the voicemail with the most dominant language spoken in your market followed by the same message spoken in the secondary language:
14. Hi, you’ve reached [business name]. We can’t take your call at the moment, but if you leave your name and number, the next available team member will return your call as soon as possible.
1. Hello, you’ve reached [your name]. I’m currently unavailable, but leave your name and number and I’ll return your call as soon as I can.
check words for the English /oʊ/ vowel. Many non-native speakers make this more like a single vowel and it’s a double vowel so it should have /o/ and /ʊ/ smoothly joined together. Check it in the word ‘phone’ . Another double vowel to look out for in your Voicemail Greeting example is the diphthong vowel /eɪ/. This vowel is in words like ‘wait’ and ‘able’. Many people use the word ‘can’t’ in their Voicemail greeting example. This can be a trap for non-native English speakers. That’s why we chose ‘unable’ instead! Watch out for the word ‘can’t’! In American English and British English the vowel in ‘can’t’ is pronounced with the vowel /æ/ like in ‘pat’ – /kænt/.
A good voicemail greeting is short and professional, lets people know that you’ll get back to them, and invites callers to continue engaging with a call-to-action. You should also show your personality if you’re in an industry or role that allows that. If your industry is more conservative, however, you’ll want to keep humor and personal touches to a minimum. A greeting Your name Your company A simple explanation for missing the call (e.g. you’re away from the phone or are on holiday) A rough estimate of when you’ll get back to the person An alternative person to reach out to (if you’re out of office) An alternative mode of communication (if you prefer email or text) A call-to-action such as “Leave a message” or “Send me an email at [email protected]”
Your voicemail greeting is the first introduction to your office — what kind of impression do you want to leave?
Recording a business voicemail greeting is not the same as recording a personalized message for your cell phone. You’ll want to maintain a level of professionalism while also connecting with your customers. Before you start recording, keep these tips in mind to leave a good impression on potential clients.
In fact, scripted voicemails receive an increased conversion rate of anywhere from 3% to 22% over unscripted voicemails.