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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.
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To learn more about Call Queue with Music On Hold or the Rollover Hunting feature, log in to the Optimum Business Account Center at optimum.net/business and click on the "Explore Optimum" link to watch the tutorial.
11. “Hello, you’ve reached [X company]. We can’t take your call right now, but please leave your name, contact information, and reason for reaching out, and one of our team members will be in touch within 24 hours.”
16. “Hello, you’ve reached [your name, the office of X company]. The team is currently out of the office, but we’ll be back on [date] stuffed with good food and eager to speak with you. Leave your name, number, and — if you’re so inclined — your favorite [holiday dish, Thanksgiving tradition, etc.]”
You can set when you would like to send callers to your voicemail. For example, you may want to send all calls to voicemail when you know you’re going to be out of the office and not taking phone calls. 1
A professional voicemail greeting is a recording that informs clients and business partners you are not available to receive their call. It is an essential part of any effective business communication strategy, especially if you are in sales.
Here, the pet care company leaves multiple options to fulfill the needs of the callers. They also have the option for attending to callers with immediate needs.
11. “Hello, you’ve reached [X company]. We can’t take your call right now, but please leave your name, contact information, and reason for reaching out, and one of our team members will be in touch within 24 hours.”
For example, a message like, “Hi, this is Jim. You know what to do.” Well, not everyone is going to know what to do—i.e. they won’t leave you inclusive information. Additionally, they may not leave you a message at all. Aside from this, humor can again be detrimental to your message, this time lending itself to ambiguity and costing you clarity. For example, if a message read, “Hi this is Jim, sorry I can’t answer your call right now. Please leave your name and number and I’ll call you as soon as I can, but you already knew that right? Do I need to tell you what to do?” This is worse than the previous example as this is confusing and can also come across as rude and unprofessional. Complicating a greeting with phrasing like this is sure to cause some harm. e. Ignoring Personality & Identity: Don’t use computer generated greetings. Some users leave default messages (‘you’ve reached the voicemail box of 777-777-777, please leave a message). Believe it or not, even this can cause problems. Callers may be unsure if the voicemail box belongs to you; therefore, they don’t leave a message. Also, some may even be uncomfortable leaving information through a message in a nameless voice message box. As such, impersonalization can cause ambiguity, which again can hurt the effectiveness of your voice message system. This doesn’t mean you have to make an elaborate greeting if you don’t want to, just insert your voice and name so at least callers know they’re calling the right person.
Short Business Voicemail Greetings. Hi there, you’ve reached [your name] at [X company]. Thanks for calling. I'm unable to answer the phone but if you leave your name, phone number, and message. I'll make sure to return your call as soon as possible. Hello, you’ve reached the office of at [X company].
These are just a few ideas to get the gears turning. These are simple examples, but don’t be afraid to show a little personality.
After accessing your voicemail, choose your next message option to perform a specific function. Press 1 to retrieve messages. Press 2 to go to saved messages. Press 7 to hear current date and time. Press 9 for your mailbox setup menu. How to navigate through messages while listening to a message
Going away for vacation or leaving the office unattended shouldn't stress you out. That's why OnSIP designed voicemail greeting setup to take only a handful of steps.
On the other hand, a stellar professional voicemail is more than just a way to ensure callers are heard. It’s actually a gateway to encourage recruiters, clients, connections, venders, and other callers to continue forward with the first step in developing a business relationship, which is them making contact. The power of the right voicemail greeting is the caller actually staying on the line to leave that contact information or gain access to an alternative contact point.
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.
When someone is trying to reach you and they can’t get you on the line, they want to leave a message right away and get on with their day. If your voicemail greeting goes on for minutes on end, chances are they aren’t going to stick around until they hear the beep.