Believe it or not, voice mail greetings like that exist and it’s not just large companies giving customers a long list of instructions to punch their way through in hopes of talking to a real, live person. It’s job seekers and small business owners not thinking about the image they’re portraying when they note a phone number in their contact info.
Written by Aja Frost @ajavuu
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Hello, you have reached the dental office of Dr. X. We are busy assisting a patient now, but will call you back as soon as possible. Please leave your name, reason for calling, and your number. If this is an urgent enquiry, please call 911. In this case, the dentist is giving a reason for not being available and they’re providing a way to prioritize the patients who need the most help. They’re also leaving an emergency number for the most severe of situations.
Website: https://www.wowforbusiness.com/docs/wow/product-support/voicemail-instructions.pdf
While email and text support saw an increase in recent years, many customers, partners, and potential hires still prefer to call your company directly. When writing your voicemail script, include basic information such as a short greeting, your company name, an invitation to leave a short message, and the time frame in which the caller can expect a return call. If relevant, you may want to include your office hours, extensions for company departments, and the contact information for your office manager or HR department.
The insurance agent is quite polite in his approach towards his clients. He is also eager in extending his help to the client.
39. Thank you for calling. I apologize for missing your call. I’m busy right now, but if you leave your name, number and message, I will return your call as soon as possible.
This is exactly why you need to create such a voicemail that lets your prospects analyze it and give their details for you to reach out to them.
The most professional voicemail message should include a formal tone and specific instructions. For example, you may say “Hello, you’ve reached [your name], [job title] at [business name]. I’m sorry to have missed your call. Please leave your name, contact information, and reason for calling so I can get back to you promptly.”
Company-level calls are usually directed to your general business number. There are occasions when everyone in the office is tied up and unable to pick up calls. It’s important to gather information about the reason for the call so that the right person or team can call them back. These greetings ensure that customers do not feel neglected while also providing assurance that their call will be attended to as soon as possible.
A professional voicemail should be short and succinct. Simply introduce your company, ask the caller to leave their information, and let the caller know when to expect a callback. Once you record your greeting, you can easily upload it into the OpenPhone app. Simply go to your phone number’s settings, then choose to record a greeting, upload an mp3 file, or use text-to-speech.
Optimum is the first landline telephone service provider in the U.S. to launch High Definition calling. HD calling is the next generation of voice technology that gives you less background noise, sharper sound quality and increased clarity in your phone conversations. To experience HD calling, customers and call recipients must subscribe to Optimum Voice and use HD-capable handsets.
Solution: Have voicemails transcribed into text format so they can be quickly read as well as stored on a computer like any text file. “Then you can search voicemails for keywords like ‘I need a quote’ or ‘price is too high,’” says Dan Baldwin, an information and communications technology consultant for business owners with ICTLA in Lake Elsinore, California. Spectrum Business Voice offers customers more than 30 calling features, including the ability to have voicemails transcribed and then viewed online.
A word of warning: These greetings will not do you any favors if you're in the midst of a job hunt or work in a conservative industry. Always remember your target personas. If there's a chance they won't appreciate your sense of humor, opt for a straightforward greeting instead.
47. Hi, this is [name], [company]’s [job title]. I’m happy to help you with [task], but I’m currently away from my phone. Leave a quick message and I’ll return your call as soon as I can. Thanks!
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.
Before you officially pick a greeting, why not practice on making your voice even and understandable? I know that my voice rises when I speak on the phone, and I tend to speak faster, so I practice in the mirror to slow down my voice and make sure that I am speaking as naturally as I can.