4) If you will be out of the office for an extended period of time, state so, and give a definite return date. If people can reach you via email in your absence, leave your email address as well.
A busy greeting should tell callers that your phone lines are currently in use. You can direct people to wait on hold or leave a message. For example, “Hello, you’ve reached [company name]. Our representatives are currently helping other customers. Please stay on the line to speak with the next available team member, or press one to leave a message and we’ll call you back.”
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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.
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You can choose where you would like to store your voicemail and fax messages—in the Calling User Portal or to a specified email address as a .tiff file. 1
Your voicemail greeting is the message your callers hear when they reach your voicemail. There are two types of voicemail greetings - Busy and No Answer. The Busy greeting is played when you are on another call and do not have call waiting, and the No Answer greeting is played when you do not answer the call.
That said—as with any technological advancement—challenges and dilemmas can arise. Here are five common voicemail problems businesses face and solutions for them:
As you look to update your script, here are a few questions to ask: Will your voicemail greeting be funny, so your callers think your business is fun? Do you want the tone to be more professional, so it gives callers the impression you only work with Fortune 500 companies? Do you want to record a brief message, or will a more detailed message be helpful? Knowing these answers will help you craft a personal voicemail greeting unique to your company.
Chances are that when someone takes the time to leave your business a voicemail, it is because it’s important that their message be communicated and left in the right hands. There’s nothing worse than calling a business only to hear that the voice mailbox is full or that the greeting is too quiet, too fast, or too confusing.
Voicemail service providers like Voicemail Office offer these life-simplifying features as part of their unified messaging packages, which allow users to obtain both voicemail and fax messages in their email inbox. Voicemail messages that are sent to email are also identified with the extension number in the body of the email, so that the purpose of the call can be foreknown. Surprisingly, rates for these services are very low, starting at just $9.95 per month.
You know, I have never given any thought, what so ever, to how my voicemail sounds to others, especially business associates. I am rather ashamed of how mine sounds.. now that I have read your article! I am going right now to change my to a more personable one. (I have the pre-recorded automated one that came with my phone, gggeeezzz)!
The biggest barrier is actually getting them to leave the voicemail in the first place. Don’t get in your own way by recording a long, drawn-out voicemail greeting that might do more to convince them to hang up than actually leave a message.
Your voicemail messages are now ready to be created just the way it is needed to be to tap your prospect’s attention for long. Key Takeaways: Voicemail messages are important, they solve the basic issue of not missing out on any leads.To create the best voicemail messages for your business you shouldn’t use standard statements, you should use relevant information and moreWe also covered the voicemail message examples you can get started with
Keep it short and sweet so that the caller can quickly leave their message and move on with their day.
If you've really got six other numbers to list it's easier to just mention a website that people can go to, because I'm not going to be able to write them all down in one go anyway. And if I have to call back multiple times then it's really going to make me angry and less likely to want to do business with you or your company. umbra21 December 4, 2013
1. Business voicemail greeting samples. If you have a main business phone number that’s shared with the customers or publicly listed, you’ll want to make sure it has a professional voicemail message to greet callers.
Your message should sound inviting and happy, so the person leaving the message doesn’t get scared off. Don’t be unnaturally over the top happy that they are leaving you a message, but definitely try and get a happy tone into your message, and show them that you value their time and the fact that they are leaving you a message.