Your customers might need you on the holidays. If you’re a business owner, you know this already. 🙂 Manage customer expectations and let them know how to get assistance.
Create a new schedule—Create a new name for the schedule and select the business hours. Edit Business Hours Menu Options for Auto Attendants
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Hi Joe. It’s Susan in Marketing. I’d like to talk with you about the budget proposal we’re sending out tomorrow. If you have time to chat today, feel free to call me back at 345-3456 or send me an email. Thanks.
All companies should have professional voicemail greetings. It’s important that all voicemails are professionally-read and sound consistent across each department. This provides the caller with an elevated experience, setting them up for success on every customer interaction.
While this information can be tucked behind a phone menu option, it's best to state it upfront in your after hours recording. This way, callers can decide whether to call back at a better time, or leave a voicemail message.
When your customers call and leave a message, their experience can significantly influence their view of your business. From navigating a menu to hearing a prerecorded business voicemail greeting, they’ll take note of how simple and professional their experience was. You can make sure they reach you with ease, both by optimizing their automated menu navigation and by ensuring they hear a professional recorded message when they call.
Making an outline of the call flow and writing out scripts for each phase and menu in it can help ensure that there are no gaps in the process from start to finish. This way, callers can reach the voicemail recording in the first place.
If your recording is vague, confusing, or drags on, customers will lose interest and hang up the phone instead of leaving a voicemail message. To help you create an effective after hours announcement, here are some best practices and sample scripts you can employ.
Creating a voicemail greeting might not be fun, but with the scripts I’ve shared, you should have an easier time. No need to practice time and time again — simply plug in your name, company title, and other details, then read it out loud to your phone’s voicemail greeting recorder. With a professional greeting, you’ll continue nurturing prospects even if you don’t pick up the phone.
“Hi there! You’ve reached [XYZ Company]. We are unable to take your call at the moment, but we want to hear what you have to say. Please leave your full name, contact details and reason for reaching out, and one of our staff members will get in touch with you within 24 hours. Thanks!”
You can record a personal greeting, or you can use one of the pre-recorded CenturyLink greetings. Follow the system prompts to select your greeting:
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This is not an answering machine–this is a telepathic thought-recording device. After the tone, think about your name, your reason for calling, and a number where I can reach you, and I’ll think about returning your call.
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Thank you for calling Parks Executive Limousine. Someone will be with you shortly. If you know your party's extension, please enter it now or press 8 for the name directory. To speak to a representative, press 1.
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.
Voicemail greetings can include any information you’d wish to convey, such as special sales, bargains, alternate phone numbers to use, or your company’s normal working hours.