“Hi, you’ve reached [your name] at [your company]. I’m unavailable right now — probably helping [type of company] get [X results, e.g. ‘double their leads in 60 days,’ ‘hire the best and brightest engineers,’ ‘convert 40% more customers.’] Leave your name and number, and we’ll discuss how your company can see similar results.” “Hello, this is [your name] at [company]. Thanks for calling. Please leave your name, number, and reason you’d like to chat, and I’ll get to back to you ASAP.” “Hi, you’ve reached [name] at [company]. If you need a quick response, please shoot me an email at [insert email address] and I’ll be in touch by EOD tomorrow. If it’s not urgent, leave me a message with your name and number. Have a great day.” “Hey, this is [your name]. If you’re calling for [X reason], please [contact so-and-so] or [go to our website, send me an email]. For all other inquiries, leave your name and a brief message and I’ll call you back within [one, two, three] business day[s].” “Hello, you’ve reached [name] at company. I’m unable to come to the phone right now. Leave your name and number, and I’ll return your call as soon as I’m free. Thank you.”
If you've got a VoIP system, however, then you've likely got one of the aforementioned softphones as part of that service, and that's how most organizations are meeting the COVID challenge, as evidenced by a survey conducted last year by sister site, Spiceworks Ziff Davis:
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Bad customer experiences impact business in many ways. Some are immediate, while others have a more lasting effect. The Impact of Bad Experiences on Business A Damaged Reputation Wasted Leads Your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Plummets Decreased Revenues High Turnover
While communication over the phone remains essential for business, to stay productive, I recommend scheduling important calls.
Typically, a good business voicemail greeting should comprise the following elements: A warm greeting. Your name, the name of your company and department name. Make an apology for being unable to take the call. Ask the caller to leave a message. Let the caller know when to expect a return call.
7. "Hello, this is [your name] at [company]. Thanks for calling. Please leave your name, number, and the reason you'd like to chat, and I'll get back to you ASAP.
Are you struggling to come up with a voicemail greeting that you believe in? Do you find that everything you record comes out too casual, overly professional, or doesn’t seem to touch all of the bases that you want it to?
The phrase ‘Your call is important to us’ is very overused and can sometimes come off as insincere. Instead your professional voicemail greeting should say something like ‘We appreciate your call and look forward to speaking with you soon.’
Hello, you have reached the voicemail of Jim Smith. I am currently out of the office and will return on Sept. 14. I will be checking my voicemail messages periodically, so please leave me a message and I will return your call as soon as possible.
We all know that when we’re at our busiest, regardless of what we do for a living, there’s not enough time in the day to get to everyone’s needs. Most people understand this and are accommodating, provided the voicemail they’re greeted with is informative and actionable. In 2019, where personalized experiences are of the utmost importance, it’s imperative for businesses to prioritize the customer experience and build their strategies around the customer.
9. “Hey, it’s [your name] at [your company] – thanks for giving me a call! I can’t wait to chat. Just leave your name, number and I’ll call you back as soon as I have the chance. Better yet, send me a text with the best time to reach you and the reason for your call. Looking forward to hearing from you.” Text communication is becoming much more relevant now. Direct your caller to text you in case they have a question you can answer easier via text. Who knows, they might prefer text messages to phone calls too.
A phone call to your business is often the first encounter your customers and prospects have with your company. If no one is available to take the call, having the best professional voicemail greetings possible is important to leave a great first impression and to ensure that business opportunities don’t slip by.
The next key element is giving a short reason or apology for being unable to take the call. Make sure to say something quick and concise like: “We are sorry to miss your call, but we are assisting others or away from our desk.”
25. "Hello! Thanks for reaching out to [company]. We're closed today for the holiday, and will reopen tomorrow. If you leave your name, number, and a brief message, we'll give you a call when we're back in the office. Thanks again, and have a great day."
If your company is concerned with efficiency, CloudPhone is a service that prides themselves on their features that facilitate efficiency and make it easy for businesses to improve their phone communication without having to slow down their business in other areas.
TalkScribe has five different rate plans, depending on how many messages you need per month. The Starter plan is $9.30/month, and includes 30 ‘message units’ (30 seconds of recording). Messages can be up to five minutes in length, and plans can be shared among multiple users. Users can sign up for a free trial of the service before making a purchase.
Your voicemail needs to have relevant information such as your name, who the prospects are connecting to, the department you work in, why your not available to assist your prospects, when you will call them and related information, this is what the prospects would prefer hearing instead of dragging the voicemail messages speaking about your brand and more.