The best after hours greetings are brief, direct, and punctual. Do not waste the customer's time and give them a reason to hang up by adding in unnecessary details. The information in your after hours greeting should remain concise and essential to the caller's needs.
Your business depends on customer engagement, and voicemail messages are a large part of that engagement. A voicemail is nothing more than a digital recording system, where messages are stored for you to retrieve later. Voicemail allows you to be able to connect with customers while you are away or during your off-hours, where they can drop off a message while you are gone. A voicemail greeting, on the other hand, refers to the message that your callers hear upon answering the phone.

We’re all familiar with this type of voicemail greeting. Simply put, a caller reaches you by dialing your number or extension directly. For an optimal personal voicemail greeting, be clear about who you are, the team you’re on, and when the caller can expect a callback. Unlike company and department voicemail greetings, you may not be able to configure a greeting for open and closed business hours. If that’s the case, use a general voicemail greeting that accommodates both scenarios.
If you don’t know what to say in your voicemail, here’s a few pointers to get you started: Make sure that you’re not yelling into the phone and the message is recorded in a somewhat quiet area. If the message is for work, try to keep it professional and avoid mistakes, if possible. If you’re working in retail, apologize for not picking up and note that you will call them back. Regardless of your occupation, try to keep the message short. It shouldn’t be longer than 25 seconds. If the voicemail is personal, feel free to leave a silly, short message that lets the caller know it’s you.