Thank you for calling [LinkedPhone – Where Freedom Rings!]. You’ve reached us outside of business hours. Please select from one of the following options: [for business hours press 1; to leave a message press 2; if this is an emergency, press 0 to be directed to our 24-hour customer success team.] We are grateful for your call and we look forward to speaking with you soon!
Of course, yours may need more details. But, even if you’re changing your outgoing message every day, it should only be a slight variation from a standard greeting.
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In this quick guide, we’ll take a look at what makes a good business voicemail greeting, breaking it down into the elements that every voicemail greeting should contain.
If you are ready to record your voicemail greeting, you should already have a solid script. Whether you include your mission statement, some fun personal details, or a favorite quote, making your voicemail greeting personal is a great way to set your business apart. Write down what you're going to say, but try to avoid reading it verbatim as you record, or it may start sounding robotic and rehearsed. When listening to your voicemail greetings your callers shouldn't feel like they're listening to an impersonal recording. Keep it conversational. If you need help achieving that conversational tone, check out these tips.
If you started your company more than a year ago, it’s probably time to change your voicemail script. Your recording should match the brand, tone, and voice of your company — just as though a caller were speaking to a member of your team.
Users often don’t invest enough time into their messages, resulting in incomplete, unprofessional, or otherwise under-whelming greetings. Sure, crafting a greeting doesn’t sound all that complicated; however, there are a number of pitfalls users can fall into—i.e. informality, terseness, sincerity, lack of direction, and more. While none of these sound too catastrophic, they are often interrelated. As such, they tend to worsen any problem. For example, humor can cause informality, worsen ambiguity, and weaken sincerity. That being said, users should strive to avoid ALL these pitfalls.
You may think this is boring, but it’s what works. Leave the sales talk and the promotion for when you call them back. Leaving a greeting is all well and good, but if it has no context you’re going to struggle to stop the person from giving up on you. Make sure people know that they’ve reached the right place. Hello, this is the office of X, the Y department. Please leave your name, reason for calling, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. By mentioning the specific department or office they’ve reached, you’re reminding them that they’ve reached the right place, and this is not some generic support department they’ve been redirected to. We talk to lots of different people every day. Make sure you remind people of who you are, and why you’re the best person to handle their call (and more importantly their valuable time). Hello, my name is X, the Senior Manager of Y, I’m sorry I’m unavailable right now, but if you leave your number I’ll return your call as soon as I can. Not only have you revealed who you are, but you’ve also given them the reassurance that their call is important to you. It leaves the right impression. The order of your words can seriously impact how your greeting is received. Research shows that we remember the first and last items on a list best, so the statements that matter most are those at the beginning and those at the end. Hello, you have reached X. I’m out of the office at the moment. Provide me with your contact details and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Do you see how important the order of the words is? The name comes first and the call to action is last. Most people will put all this important information in the middle of their greeting. It may not seem like a big difference, but it really matters. It can be tempting to try to fit as much information into a voicemail greeting as possible. Don’t do that. Sometimes less is more. Try to incorporate some strategic pauses into your greeting, so you can let everything sink in. Hello, this is X from Y. [Pause] I am not available to take your call right now. [Pause] If you are calling about Z, then please leave your name and number and I will get back to you as soon as you can.
Here are some of the examples that we have picked for you. By getting inspired by these, you can come up with your own unique greetings too.
Editor’s Note: The article is part of the blog series Grow Your Business brought to you by the marketing team at UniTel Voice, the virtual phone system priced and designed for startups and small business owners.
25.Thank you for calling [X company Company name]. Our representatives are currently unable to take your call as they are helping clients achieve [X goal]. We don’t want to take up your valuable time, so please leave us your name, phone number and message after the beep and one of our representatives will personally assist you within the next 24 hours. Have a wonderful day.
Whether you are trying to be funny or want your friends to know your favourite song, chances are your Placement Consultant or Hiring Manager will not be impressed by an unprofessional voicemail. You should ensure that you record a professional voicemail message (with no background noise) such as, “Hi, you’ve reached [say your full name]. I’m sorry I missed your call. Please leave your name, number and a brief message after the tone and I will call you back as soon as possible.”
1. "Hi, you've reached [your name] at [your company]. I'm unavailable right now — probably helping [type of company] get [X results, e.g. ‘double their leads in 60 days,' ‘hire the best and brightest engineers,' ‘convert 40% more customers.'] Leave your name and number, and we'll discuss how your company can see similar results."
Calmly and steadily record your voicemail. Don’t rush it to the point where the customer can’t decipher everything you’ve requested on the message. To ease the process, write your voicemail down with pause points. This will ensure you annunciate everything clearly and can assist in managing your speed.
A monotone voice can be a turn off for a caller. You want your caller to feel like they missed out on speaking with you — not like they dodged a bullet.
The main point that we want to drive home with this article is that you shouldn’t overthink your business voicemail greeting. Just keep it short, and state the relevant information.
Using Azure Cloud Voicemail (CVM) (known as Skype for Business) Voicemail Playback/Storage. CVM voicemails are still stored in the users Exchange mailbox with the attached voicemail and transcription. Users can playback voicemails by one of the following methods: Skype for Business: via the Phone tab
When you’re closed for the holiday, it’s good to forgo your usual out-of-office greeting for a custom holiday message. Keep it cheery and brief, and be sure to let callers know when you’ll resume normal business operations.