How many times have you gone through the following scenario: While working with a customer or engaged on an important call, you receive a new voicemail. You listen to the message, hoping to understand the caller’s name and issue correctly. And when the caller whizzes through the digits of their callback number faster than you can write, you have to go through the entire message again. Once this exercise has been completed, you call the person back, only to get their voicemail.
"People started raising their hands. They started volunteering, 'Please take my voice mail away. It's annoying, it's redundant, I never use it anymore,' " she says.

Creating a professional voicemail greeting isn’t complicated, but you need to keep a few things in mind to ensure success. The following tips will help: Be friendly and welcoming - let your company's personality shine!; Have a clear voice, speak at a slow to moderate pace, minimize background noise; Ensure the greeting is human and approachable; Keep the greeting short and informative; Ensure the greeting doesn’t sound robotic or unnatural; Show your gratitude for the call by saying thank you; Manage expectations by clearly stating when the client can expect a callback.
Your greeting is very important as it can be the first contact people have with you or your company. Voice mail is only impersonal if you make it that way. One way to help increase the effectiveness of voice mail is to change your greeting at least weekly if not daily.