The Sell to Win Playbook collects 55 of the best expert sales tips we’ve ever published. Download it today!
You've reached Big Apple Cleaners. We are currently closed. Our regular business hours are from 9 am to 9 pm, Monday through Friday. If you would like to leave a voicemail, please include your name and phone number, and we'll respond to you as soon as possible. Thank you and have a nice day.
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The simple truth is that you need to be more aware of what you’re leaving for other people to hear. Sure, this doesn’t always register as a priority for users, but it’s never too late to reassess your greeting. a. Reading/Speaking in the Imperfect Tone: Tone is absolutely everything. Users don’t want to come off as being too nice, as it sounds insincere, or being too terse, as it can be interpreted as being rude. That being said, striking the right balance is absolutely essential. Your greeting exists as its own entity, and therefore, it should NOT rely on callers’ familiarity with you. Instead, it needs to appeal to the masses. As such, your inflection, i.e. the way you state your name and directions, needs to be both welcoming and firm. b. Injecting Humor & Insincerity: While humor/light heartedness can be welcoming, it can also convey a sense of informality, insincerity, and ultimately unprofessionalism. Why, because you’re not there to lend your humor or to contextualize. Instead, you’re assuming the caller has a working knowledge of your personality to ground the message. Though this might not sound like it’s all that terrible—it can be detrimental. As stated above, one should NEVER rely on a caller’s familiarity with you. Instead, aim to appeal to the masses. Humor is ultimately subjective, meaning not everyone has the same tastes; therefore, someone is bound to be turned off by a quirky or off-color remark. While implementing a light-hearted or even tongue and cheek tone can work, it’s just a really bad idea.
In the end, it’ll be down to you or your team to record and customize their own personal greeting. Depending on the overall culture and identity of your business, it might make sense to engage customers with a friendlier, warm and fun holiday greeting – while others might benefit more from clean cut, down to business explanations of schedule changes. , to get you started, here are a few quick templates to build off of. Feel free to tailor, change, customize or completely start from scratch! These could of course be used for your own individual office greeting, or your entire company’s greeting.
5. If your job involves a lot of talking on the phone, take the time to learn the NATO phonetic alphabet. "If you need to spell something out, you'll always have a way to clarify which letter you've said without having to think about it, and it sounds more professional than, 'B as in boy, L as in...
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.
“Keep your voicemail messages short, sweet, and snappy," advises Will Craig, Managing Director of LeaseFetcher. "Don’t try and go into the nitty gritty details of the discussion you’d like to have with them—save that for your actual chat. Alternatively, don’t leave them in the dark about what you want to talk about either. A simple 20-second voicemail letting them know the nature of your query will suffice."
Your voicemail PIN can be any number 4 to 15 digits long. Be sure to make note of it because you'll need it to access your messages in the future.
Hi Sam, this is Joan. I couldn’t make it to the meeting this morning and I was hoping you could *fill me in*. Feel free to give me a call when you have a free moment. Thanks.
Often times knowing the purpose of their calls allows me to respond to their messages by sending them emails. As an example, when people have a question, often times I can send them an email answering their question. Knowing the purpose of the call also allows me to continue the communication through their voicemail if we end up playing phone tag.
You might not be the kind of person who wants customers to go through long voicemails. If that sounds like you, here are a couple of short and sweet voicemail greetings that you can use to get your message across!
These 10 tips are a surefire way to maximize the value you’re getting from your voicemail service and delight callers into becoming customers. Have at ‘em! 1. Limit Background Noise. If you’re recording your greeting from the back of a New York City cab with the windows down, it’s gonna be pretty obvious to your callers.
Well done on recording your new professional voicemail greeting with script! Remember that you can update it again in a few months time. I recommend you open your online diary, choose a date 4 months from now and type in – Update Voicemail Greeting with Speech Active’s Video. Your listening skills and pronunciation will be even better than they are now. Especially if you continue your improvement with one of our tailored online English Pronunciation & Fluency Courses.
Greetings. You’ve reached the office of [Name]. I’m either out of the office or gone for the day. However, your call is extremely import to me, so I’d appreciate it if you’d leave your message, along with your contact information, at the sound of the beep. Thank you for your call.
PM Monday through Friday. Please leave a message stating your name, phone number and the test you need to make an appointment for. Someone will return your call during business hours. Thank you.” Outbound Appointment Reminders . Used to remind patients of pre-scheduled appointments and to confirm with the person called.
Written by Aja Frost @ajavuu
You have to pick up 100 voice mail messages and write them down. Probably, you will have to return about 90 percent of the calls, …