“Hello, you’ve reached the confidential voicemail of Dr. Barb LoFrisco, CounselorBarb, a licensed mental health counselor, licensed marriage and family therapist and sex therapist. You may press # to bypass the remainder of this message. If you’d like to book an appointment, you can do so by using the “Schedule Appointment” button on the front page of my website, counselorbarb.com. If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 211 for the crisis center or 911 for medical personnel. I am currently on the phone or in session, so please leave me a message. Your call is very important to me and will be returned within 24 business hours. If you are a current client please remember my 48 hour cancellation policy. Thank you for calling and I look forward to speaking with you.”
For example, a message like, “Hi, this is Jim. You know what to do.” Well, not everyone is going to know what to do—i.e. they won’t leave you inclusive information. Additionally, they may not leave you a message at all. Aside from this, humor can again be detrimental to your message, this time lending itself to ambiguity and costing you clarity. For example, if a message read, “Hi this is Jim, sorry I can’t answer your call right now. Please leave your name and number and I’ll call you as soon as I can, but you already knew that right? Do I need to tell you what to do?” This is worse than the previous example as this is confusing and can also come across as rude and unprofessional. Complicating a greeting with phrasing like this is sure to cause some harm. e. Ignoring Personality & Identity: Don’t use computer generated greetings. Some users leave default messages (‘you’ve reached the voicemail box of 777-777-777, please leave a message). Believe it or not, even this can cause problems. Callers may be unsure if the voicemail box belongs to you; therefore, they don’t leave a message. Also, some may even be uncomfortable leaving information through a message in a nameless voice message box. As such, impersonalization can cause ambiguity, which again can hurt the effectiveness of your voice message system. This doesn’t mean you have to make an elaborate greeting if you don’t want to, just insert your voice and name so at least callers know they’re calling the right person.

1.) Bem-vindo à John Doe. Infelizmente, não há ninguém no escritório agora ou você está ligando fora do horário comercial. Por favor, deixe uma mensagem ou envie um e-mail para [email protected]. Muito obrigado pela sua ligação.
“Good afternoon. You have reached the office of [your name]. I will be out of the office beginning on [date] and will be returning on [date]. Please leave a brief message with your contact information, and I’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as I return on [date]. If this is an emergency or you need to speak with someone before I return, please contact [name of colleague/supervisor], [their job title], at [their phone number].”