Customer experience is today’s business battleground. At a time where it’s common for even the most established businesses to deliver poor service, incompetent support, and just outright bad communication, how do you stand out? As big companies fail in the customer experience department, doors open for small business owners and entrepreneurs to distinguish themselves.
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.

Mailbox greetings play when a caller reaches a user's mailbox. There are two greetings: one that plays when the user's phone is busy and the other when they don't answer or when they have their phone in Call Forwarded Always to voice mail. The default no-answer greeting plays a message recorded by the user. A typical user-recorded greeting would identify the user and inform callers that they are unable to answer their call� example: "Hello. You have reached John Doe. I am in today but missed your call. If you would like, please leave your name, telephone number and message at the sound of the tone and I will return your call as soon as possible. Thank you."
Tip: write down what you’d like to say, and then read it when you are recording your greeting. Try not to speak too quickly. Then, play the recording back to make sure you like how it sounds. Working in Community Mental Health with Katie Fleming: Ep. 22 Podcast Top 50 Counseling Blogs Counseling Resources 50 Free Open Courseware Classes About Psychology and the Human Brain Education Psychology 18 Beautiful Infographics About the Human Brain Brain Psychology