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.
He says checking voice mail, with all the announcements, codes and prompts, took 10 to 15 minutes out of a day, not including the time required to call each person back.

Paul Blanchard, managing director of an eight-person PR firm based in London, says his company got rid of voice mail three years ago. Even for a client-services business, voice mail seemed unnecessary, he says.
Business professionals are also encouraged to keep their voicemail organized. Delete any messages from the office phone that are no longer necessary after calls are returned, and write down any phone numbers that are needed at the time the message is listened to. If modern voicemail service is utilized, such as that supplied by Voicemail Office, in which voicemail and fax messages are received in a staff member’s email inbox, the individual should write a short explanation in the body of the email if forwarding any voicemail messages to other staff members.