Recording professional voicemail greetings is easy but many people find it to be akin to public speaking, and are therefore apprehensive about starting. First of all, lets acknowledge the elephant in the room and just say that nobody in the history of the world enjoys the sound of their voices being played back to them. Once you can accept that, getting a professional voicemail greeting or Auto Attendant menu recorded will be a lot easier. To help you get the right tone and tenor of what you’re trying to communicate over you business voicemail, we’ve put together this handy list of resources for you.
You are a fantastic answering service. My clients really appreciate your professionalism.
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If done tastefully, you can promote your products or services on your voicemail greeting without sounding pushy. In fact, it’s a great way to keep customers up-to-date on company events, sales, and other news. Be sure to keep it short and have fun with it.
Don’t rush. It’s important to speak slowly and clearly when leaving your next voicemail greeting. Have you ever called someone and the message sounds like one big word? Don’t be that guy. Pronounce your words and take pauses between your sentences
6 Do’s and Don’t’s of writing Voicemail Recording Scripts Follows the do’s and don’t of leaving the correct voicemail for your clients. Write a new voicemail greeting for office following these 6 principles. A lawyer’s office needs to maintain professionalism at all times in order to record the perfect voicemail greeting. Let’s look at an voicemail greetings example.
20. “Hey there! Thanks for calling [company]. We are unable to answer the phone right now but will get back to you right after the holidays. We hope it’s not an emergency, but if so, we’ve got you covered. Contact us at [company email/other support lines] and we’ll get back to you ASAP. Please be sure to leave your name, phone number, and a brief message to let us know the reason for your call. Thank you and have a great day.” Available even during holiday emergencies? Let your callers know via your voicemail greeting.
Out of town? Your callers should know. Let them know with the following vacation voicemail greetings.
16. Hi, you’ve reached [X Business Name]. Our regular business hours are [State opening hours]. If you need to reach someone immediately, please call [contact’s name] at [cell phone number]. If not, leave your name and contact information and a representative will get back to you when we re-open.
5. "Hello, [Person's name] is chasing new adventures and is no longer with [Company name]. Please forward all future requests to [New or interim person's name] at [phone number].
Always keep in mind the people who will be listening to your professional voicemail greetings. What type of tone and information resonates with them?
It’s a good practice for each of your team members to have their own personal business phone numbers. There are many reasons why they shouldn’t use their personal cell phone number for business, so you’ll want to give them their own phone number through your VoIP provider or phone system.
When someone is trying to reach you and they can’t get you on the line, they want to leave a message right away and get on with their day. If your voicemail greeting goes on for minutes on end, chances are they aren’t going to stick around until they hear the beep.
This type of service can be very beneficial as users are still able to craft their own messages, while a professional reads them. In doing so, companies can spend more time on the scripting process, making sure the text conveys everything they want it to. As such, companies may bring in expert teams to draft, revise, and/or finalize the script itself. The bottom line is you can take more time to get the words right. Additionally, in working with a professional voice talent, you are ensuring your words have the utmost impact—i.e. the words are read perfectly with the right tone, resonance, pacing, etc.
For many businesses and professionals, your voicemail greeting is going to be the first point-of-contact for your customers. This is especially true for service businesses, who often rely on their voicemail to collect information from interested parties.
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.
Once you move to Skype for Business Server 2019 you'll be automatically upgraded to Cloud voicemail. Since Cloud Voicemail is a part of Skype for Business Online and Teams Online you'll need to enable your Skype Online License in your office 365 Tenant. Just go into your use licensing and flip the switch, and Cloud Voicemail will be available!
Before you record your professional voicemail message, take a quick peek through these examples for some inspiration: