Almost 70% of Americans say that it’s their general practice to not answer the phone. At some point or another, you’re going to have no choice but to leave a voicemail for your clients. Here’s how to do it in a HIPAA compliant way.
Put some thought into your message before you hit “record.” It takes very little time to write a script for yourself to read as you record your greeting. Reading off a script eliminates unnecessary pauses, “ums” and “ahs.”
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RingCentral is one of the top names in VOIP for business. Their cloud-based solution gives users the trusted connectivity of a traditional phone line, with the mobility of whatever device they choose to work from on the go like a laptop or smartphone. The company offers subscribers a variety of toll-free numbers so customers can call from anywhere–including from long-distance–free of charge. Video calling helps add another form of connection to suit your business as well. At $19.99 per month, per user, RingCentral is competitively priced with its peers.
While the exact features offered in any particular UCaaS solution can change radically from vendor to vendor, most include options for video conferencing, shared meeting and online collaboration tools, integrated faxing, mobile VoIP integration, and device-independent softphone clients. That last one is especially important now because it means that your employees can download an app to their personal smartphone or company laptop and that app will mirror all the functionality of their corporate phone, including responding to calls coming into your business phone number and their extension in particular. For folks trapped at home by the pandemic, that's a perfect solution.
A number of other features may come with a business voicemail service. Packages from different vendors vary in scope, but these options are common in the business telephony industry.
Sound upbeat in your message. When recording, be sure to say your message with a smile on your face. It’s obvious when people aren’t happy in their message. Since your work revolves around keeping happy customers, do your part by keeping a happy-sounding voicemail message.
Before delving into the specifics on improving voicemail greetings, it’s important to go back to basics. This means creating that strong foundation in your mind and in your entire team as to what a voicemail greeting is, so you’re certain that all the strategies you apply are well-suited to the definition of a voicemail greeting.
Business voicemail greeting scripts. While it’s important to include a lot of standard and repeatable information in your business voicemail greeting, don’t forget to make it unique to your small business. Start with one of the following five scripts to get started with your own business voicemail:
10Hello, this is [your name]. I’m probably at home just avoiding someone I dislike. A funny way of telling someone you’re avoiding them without sounding offensive or having to pick their calls. Please speak very slowly, make it short, make it sweet, and I’ll deliver the message to them. Using other household appliances as stand-ins for the message center is cute and funny. This voicemail will warn callers not to bring drama, so you can save yourself the trouble of having to hear a message that was about to spoil your day.
Examples of Professional Voicemail Greetings. Below are some examples of professional voicemail greetings: Thank you for calling! You have reached the office of [name], [position]. I am currently unavailable to take this call. If this is an emergency, please call my answering service at [number], which is available 24/7.
Your virtual receptionist is available 24/7/365 to keep your business running even while you sleep. VR is the most professional way to answer and direct customer calls and allows you to customize the greeting in order to protect your brand and efficiently help your caller.
A professional voicemail greeting can be the difference between a caller proceeding on to deliver their message or simply hanging up. Ensure you take the time to craft the right voicemail greeting for your business.
2. Announce yourself. Make sure to identify yourself and your business on your voicemail greeting. It confirms that your caller reached the right party. It will also reduce the number of wasted calls, hang-ups, and trivial messages that your small business receives. 3. Set the right expectation. Let your callers know when they can expect a call
Freshdesk's features match the ones offered by the other best virtual phone number providers on our list. However, it is the only provider of robust call center features like a multi-level interactive voice response system that routes your customer calls to teams or agents with a customizable call-flow mechanism. You can configure the system any way you wish – callers could press 1 for Customer Support, 2 for Sales and 3 for another department unique to your company.
18. “Happy holidays! [I’m, the team at X company is] away until [date], however, we’ll make sure to call you back straight away when we return. If your request is urgent, email [emergency contact] at [email address]. Thanks, and have a wonderful [day, week].”
No more. The ability to quickly email or text voice messages to yourself or someone else. This is handy if you want to forward along a specific message instead of taking the time to explain it to someone. Sure, there are ways to forward messages via basic (non-visual) voicemail, but it's probably more involved.
Depending on the pricing tier, this virtual phone assistant also offers CRM integration, paperless fax, API access, priority support, external storage, advanced reports, and integrations with robust software solutions such as Zapier and Webhooks.