Editor’s Note: The article is part of the blog series Grow Your Business brought to you by the marketing team at UniTel Voice, the virtual phone system priced and designed for startups and small business owners.
Before any business can create clear, easy to hear (and understand) recorded audio messages, they need the right recording equipment. Many businesses try to get by with using audio recorded on a standard recording device.
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Let’s be honest, you (hopefully) set up your voicemail when you first got your phone, and it probably hasn’t changed since then. If you’re about to start job-hunting, now is the perfect time to refresh your professional voicemail greeting.
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.”
A temporary greeting is something you record when you're in need of an interim message—like when you’re on vacation or out for the holidays. Dial *98 on your OnSIP-registered phone. Enter your voicemail box number. Enter the PIN/password for your voicemail box. Press 0 for voicemail box options. Press 3 to record your temporary message. How to Delete Your Business Voicemail Greetings
What’s more annoying than being unprepared? Doing business with someone who is. In other words, don’t wing it — practice your script, speaking slowly and annunciating each word.
When your business is closed for vacation or holidays, it’s imperative that you set appropriate expectations for a callback and to provide an alternative coverage option, if available. The following greeting accomplishes this succinctly.
Written by Aja Frost @ajavuu
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This is optional, but you can also leave another form of contact on your voicemail, like an email, that the employer who is calling can utilize. This will show that you want to get back to them as quickly as possible, and you are giving them multiple ways to do so. This isn’t necessary, but can be a good step if you want to squeeze a little more into the voicemail without going overboard.
While they are listening to your voice, they are internally deciding whether or not it is worth their time to continue or hang up. Look at your voicemail message as its own short advertisement.
Any time you're checking voicemail from a phone line that is not your home line, you are required to enter your voicemail PIN. Did you forget your PIN? You can reset it.
For me, voicemail protocol doesn’t fall into a “pet peeve” category like a candidate arriving for an interview with bad breath or dirty fingernails. A voicemail greeting tells me something very specific about the communication savvy and sensitivity of a prospective candidate.
Cox Business offers a pager notification option when you receive voice mail. All pager notifications are routed to a pager email address, not a telephone number. Once you have identified the email address for sending messages to your pager, typically in [email protected] format, contact a Cox Representative to add pager notification preferences to your voice mailbox. Subject: New Voice Msg | 01/27/2013 | 08:46PM (EST) | Caller: (732)111-0000 | 2 new | 0 Subject: New Fax Msg | 01/27/2013 | 09:22PM (EST) | Caller: (732)555-2468 | 3 new | 0 Cox Business requires initial setup of each voice mailbox from a desk phone as it is set up in our network. Can I record and upload a professionally-recorded greeting for our voice mailbox? Contact your Cox Business representative for information about uploading pre-recorded files for your voice mailbox. How much storage space is provided with Cox Business Voice Mail? What happens when the storage space is consumed?
23. Hello, you’ve reached [X company]. We are currently closed. Our office hours are Monday through Friday, from [x time] to [x time] [time zone]. Please visit our website at [company website URL] for more information, or leave us your name, phone number, and the reason for your call and we will get back to you on [X day]. Thank you for calling [X company].
Don’t leave customers and colleagues on edge. If you say you’re going to call them back, follow up. If you tend to fall behind in this area, encourage them to email you or reach out in another way. Better yet, learn how to forward voicemail to email so you can access the message anywhere.
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