You already know the importance of staying in touch with your customers, whether they’re down the street or across the ocean. More than ever expanding into international markets is necessary for many growing businesses - and Business Voice offers competitive per-minute rates so international calling doesn’t have to be expensive.
You are living in 2020 and you do realize that your prospects can come to you anytime, which means you need to be catering to them whenever that happens, at 3 am in the morning or even at 11 pm in the night.
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We'll take you through the five most professional voicemail greetings. This will include how to structure different parts of your voicemail, as well as things to avoid.
1. State Your Business Name. The first thing your callers should hear is the name of your business or organization. This assures them that they have dialed the right phone number and keeps them on the line.
e. Never Assume Anything: Phrases like “You Know What To Do,” “Sing Your Song at the Beep,” and others mentioned above are awful to leave in your greeting. For the sake of universality and comprehensiveness, NEVER assume the caller knows what to do. Lay it out clearly. f. Leave a Message: This phrase, by itself, will not do. It’s imperative for users to identify themselves in their greetings. Callers need to know they’ve reached the right person. g. Disregard Lethargy: If you’re not excited about your greeting, why would anyone else be? Never display a lack of enthusiasm in your greeting as it could turn callers off to both you and your business. h. Speak Clearly and Never Slur: Callers need to understand your every word; therefore, mumbling, slurring, and all other detractions of speech should never be recorded. d. Be Creative Without Sacrificing Quality: Callers know how voicemails work–i.e. leave a number, message, etc. While you want to be clear, it’s important not to be contrive or redundant with your message. Creativity can help users to differentiate themselves, as well as intrigue callers. While users should avoid the tropes of creativity listed above, it’s definitely good to think outside the box. That being said, scripting and practice can help users to experiment more with their greeting–ultimately allowing for more unique and creative approach. e. Speak With Diction: It’s important to present one’s self as an authority without alienating callers. As such, it’s crucial to articulate and speak with clear diction. “ if your voice recording has you stumbling over words and speaking haltingly, it does not convey confidence and competence,” states Ron Sellers of Grey Matter Research & Consulting. Remember, this greeting represents you; therefore, you want to appear collected and professional, as well as welcoming. To do this, one must carry themselves well through their recorded message. f. Account for Timeliness: Your message should be concise. No caller wants to be sitting through a rant/diatribe of redundant statements. Your greeting should flow without dragging. Inversely, one doesn’t want to be terse, either. Engage callers with a simplified approach laden with creativity. h. Account for Quality: Aside from speaking clearly, users want to eliminate any noise in the surrounding environment. The quality of the greeting is just as important as what’s being said in the greeting itself. As such, one doesn’t want to undermine a great message with poor quality. i. Courtesy, Tastefulness, & Tact: This is pretty self-explanatory and straight forward–NEVER be rude. Being light-hearted and humorous is very different from being obnoxious and/or abrasive. Again, these tools can be helpful if utilized properly, but not everyone perceives humor the same way. So play it safe. The last thing your voicemail greeting should do is offend a caller. k. Provide Options: if you’re part of a bigger company, it might be good to offer caller options. For example, allow a menu to defer callers to a colleague or co-worker in your absence. This can help show callers you care about their well being. Another option might be offering different modes of communication–i.e. email, fax, etc. In offering users diversity, contact may be much easier to maintain.
20. “Hey there! Thanks for calling [company]. We are unable to answer the phone right now but will get back to you right after the holidays. We hope it’s not an emergency, but if so, we’ve got you covered. Contact us at [company email/other support lines] and we’ll get back to you ASAP. Please be sure to leave your name, phone number, and a brief message to let us know the reason for your call. Thank you and have a great day.” Available even during holiday emergencies? Let your callers know via your voicemail greeting.
That’s the simple structure of a voicemail greeting. Overall, your greeting should be professional, but the wording can vary depending on the situation. Check out a sample below.
32. Hi, you’ve reached [your name] at [X company]. Our office is currently closed until [X date]. Please leave us your name and number, and our team will get back to you as soon as possible. Enjoy [X holiday].
Why Your Business Should Have a Business Voicemail Greeting. A voicemail greeting is a simple message that plays before callers leave a message. It may play either when you don’t answer or if your phone is off. A professional greeting may encourage people to leave messages, which in turn makes it easier for you to get back in touch.
Solution: Voicemail should be a part of your company’s overall phone system, Baldwin says, so you can maximize functionality and integrate it with other tools and business applications. “If your voicemail is separate because it’s stored solely on your mobile phone, you need to get it off that and put it on the messaging app that comes with your business voice phone service,” he says.
Re: Voicemail for Auto Attendant & Call queueing. Yes, believe this was covered earlier, or in another thread. Basically need to have a user with UM/Voicemail enabled in your O365 tenant, then the AA routes to a "person". So it will costs you a full E3 license to enable UM/Voicemail.
A professional voicemail greeting is a recorded message that welcomes callers to your business when no one is available to pick up the call. For a polished call experience, the greeting should reflect who the client is calling – whether a general business number, department, team, or individual – and when the customer can expect the call to be returned.
No, the voice mail on your phone can only be deleted through your Cox Business voice service or a cell phone. We recommend that you delete all audio files after listening to them since these files are large and will decrease your email storage capacity. (Note: Voice Mail older than 31 days will automatically be deleted from the mailbox.) The voice mail message can be transcribed up to 90 seconds. You can call your voice mail number or play the .wav file to listen to the entire message. I checked the box to receive Text (or audio) but did not get the email. What happened?
While missed calls aren’t ideal, you can let your caller know you’re still there for them by having a great voicemail greeting. The best business voicemail greetings let your customers (and potential customers) know why you’re not available and how they can best get in contact with your business. They are also short and to the point. You usually want to keep your greeting between 6 and 24 seconds long so callers don’t hang up halfway through.
IVR (optional) > Phone Rings > If the employee does not pick up > Your professional voicemail greeting (opportunity to cross-sell or tell them to drop their message). “Your professional voicemail greeting message matters.” Scenarios where customers get directed to voicemail…
Telling a quick joke or including a little more information can keep you safely within the 20-second timeframe while letting the caller understand a little more about you.
A good business voicemail greeting creates a favorable impression on the customer, whether it’s their first or fifteenth time calling your business. What to say in a business voicemail greeting At the very minimum, you want to say the name of the person or department, and company name so the caller knows they have reached the right place .