We’re keeping it simple with this one. Just a few basic elements to help you get started. As long as you know who your audience is, the message you wish to convey, and the information you need from the caller, the rest should fall into place quite nicely. Let’s face it, a voicemail greeting for a lumber company will probably be different than that of a psychologist’s office. One greeting is aimed at securing potential customers, and the other is geared towards appointments, more or less. Once you are certain who your caller is, the better your voicemail. Center on your audience, first and foremost. Knowing what to relate ensures that your caller will leave the right message. For instance, if you’re a retail store, you would include your hours of operations, and perhaps any specials that you’re running. If you are a therapist’s office, then you’d need to include an alternate number in case a patient is having an issue and requires immediate help. Again, this will vary depending on the business. Here, a therapist would definitely request the caller leave their contact information. However, a retail store chain might not request that. There are also complex voicemail systems such as those used by mobile phone services, which ask you to press a certain number on your phone, where you are asked to leave your account information. Again, as you can see, it all boils down to the demographics of your callers, and what you need from them to conduct the best business possible. Depending on the situation, your caller might be in a good mood or not. In either case, they’ll probably be eagerly awaiting your call. So, it stands to reason that you only promise them a call back if you can deliver. In other words, if you’re a small shop and you’ve decided to close due to a much-needed sabbatical, then don’t leave a voicemail greeting where you promise them to call right back. However, if you have an active customer service staff, then you can promise to return their call within the same day.
I wish that I’d read this a few years ago. I think that we all have a few voicemails that we wish that we could keep forever, but I lost a few a couple years ago. I think that my current system stores them in a digital messaging system, like you mentioned, so they should be able to be saved. Thanks for the post!

Hi! So sorry it took me a few days to respond. I’m so sorry to hear what you’ve been going through. There are a few recorders that we mention in the post, but if those don’t work, try the service that Bonnie mentioned on the comments (http://www.voicemailsforever.com) or try contacting ATT and see if they have any ideas for you. One other option might be a portable speaker that so many stores have now, that you can use to listen to music on your cell phone or tablet. They really amplify sound. Let me know how things work out! Laura
8. "Hi, you've reached [your name]. I'm unable to come to the phone right now. But if you leave your name, number, and a short message, I'll be sure to call back."