Hello, I’m Lucy Smith, the sales manager at Brilliant Books. Unfortunately, I can’t pick up the phone right now. However, I would love to speak with you at my next opportunity. Please leave me your name, phone number and some details about your reason for phoning. Thanks so much, looking forward to speaking with you shortly.
21. Hello, this is [your name]. I’m not much of a phone person, so don’t bother leaving a message. Send me an email at [email address] and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

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.
Expanding on the simple approach above, let the caller know who they've reached. This will not only eliminate people leaving voicemails by mistake, but it will reassure the caller that they have called the number they intended.