Written by Aja Frost @ajavuu
Recording voicemail greetings for your business or personal life requires a separate list of priorities, because they are being used for two distinct purposes and will be heard by two very different types of callers. I have a friend with two cell phones - one for work, and one for personal calls - and if you call both lines, you would never know it's the same person. While the message on his personal line might not be ideal, he took the time to record a professional voicemail message for his business phone, which makes it stand out.
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It’s more important that your callers feel like they can ask you for help on a subject they don’t know too well. A really easy way of simplifying your greetings is by using smaller words. Imagine yourself explaining what you want to a three-year-old. Your customers aren’t stupid, but they’re not going to always be familiar with typical business jargon. Make sure you’re adjusting your greetings to accommodate for the lack of familiarity, unnecessary details, and technical information.
Here’s a generic business voicemail greeting example: “Thank you for calling [company/person’s name]. We are currently unavailable, but if you leave your name, phone number, and message, we will get back to you as soon as possible.” The above greeting is a professional voicemail script used by many growing and established businesses.
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Business professionals are also encouraged to keep their voicemail organized. Delete any messages from the office phone that are no longer necessary after calls are returned, and write down any phone numbers that are needed at the time the message is listened to. If modern voicemail service is utilized, such as that supplied by Voicemail Office, in which voicemail and fax messages are received in a staff member’s email inbox, the individual should write a short explanation in the body of the email if forwarding any voicemail messages to other staff members.
Whether you need phones for opening a new office, supporting employees working from home, or it’s time to update your business phone system, we have done all of the research and tested over 25 small business phone systems to prepare the list of our best Top 5 most recommended business telephone systems. The manufacturer must be reliable, with a proven history and warranty support. Be the most affordable for a small business to purchase and maintain. Be future proof — compatible with standard analog landline telephone service or VoIP cloud phone service. Provides feature to transfer calls to a cell phone, a smartphone app, and supports mobile and home office employees. Must have the essentials: automated attendant call tree menus, voicemail to email, intercom, call forward, transfer, and music on hold.
Rehearse or write down your message before recording it. Remember that old saying “practice makes perfect?” It’s certainly true when it comes to creating an electronic greeting. The more you’ve rehearsed, the easier the message will be to restate. If you don’t have time to practice, writing down the greeting before recording it – and then reading it aloud from the paper – may help you stay focused on the correct wording.
Practicing regularly also means taking tips from other call agents who’ve been making the business voicemail calls for a longer time than you may have been doing. There’s always time to learn from each other. And as you do, you can undo any possible mistakes and improve on those facets of making business voicemail calls which need improvement.
Professional recording studio — Rent a professional recording studio space for a day to have optimal audio quality.Professional speaker — Hire a voiceover professional to create all of the voicemails across your company.Create a script — Create scripts for the voiceover professional to use during recording.Be personable — As noted above, allow for a bit of personality in the recording.Be positive — Tone matters more than the words you say!Keep it short — The longer they have to listen, the less likely they are to leave a message.Ask for details — Make sure to get the most important information from them in their message. Get a free business voicemail script (that you can use today!)
If you've still got a legacy voice system, meaning an on-site PBX with analog phones, then your only real COVID response will be call forwarding to your employees' home phones. That may or may not be acceptable to your employees, especially since these days many of them won't have an analog phone available, which means you'll need to do your forwarding to a personally-owned mobile phone.
Just because it’s your business voicemail, doesn’t mean you have to sound like a robot. It’s important to make sure your callers know you’re actually human, and injecting some fun and wit into your greeting is the perfect way to say cue Scarlett Johansson voice I’m Samantha, and I have empathy.
PhoneTag offers voicemail-to-text solutions for both personal and business use. The Small Business offering includes integrations with popular VoIP phone systems, including OnSIP. PhoneTag uses speech recognition technology to convert a voicemail into text, so no one actually listens to your messages. The text is then delivered via email or SMS with a copy of the audio file for reference. The service also includes call forwarding from your mobile and/or landline phone to your PhoneTag account.
Most VoIP solutions will require stable and consistent internet connectivity at all your office locations where VoIP will be used. At the very least, your business phone system must have access to a business-class internet link, so discuss these needs with your company's internet service provider (ISP). This should be a dedicated link through a dedicated router if you expect your phone calls to sound as if they were coming from a business and not someone's home Skype connection. At a minimum, it's important to have a router that can create virtual LANs (VLANs) and also has the ability to encrypt your voice traffic. These days, you need end-to-end VoIP security for any call.
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All calls made to the local phone numbers supplied by Sonetel can be forwarded to any type of phone, including mobile, anywhere in the world, or answered through the Sonetel app. You can also make international calls from your virtual phone number.
Of course, there are a few things you will always want to keep in mind when you are recording any message. First, a voicemail greeting can be your first impression, so you'll always want to take the time to think about what you'll say when you record it. You might want to write a script or just go over what you'll say in your head. Be sure to ask callers for their name, a message, and a call back number, or you might get stuck with "Hey, it's me, call me back" (I'm notorious for leaving messages like this). Be sure you practice speaking slowly and clearly as you deliver your short, to the point message. It's also a good idea to leave 1 to 2 seconds of silence before you begin speaking, so callers have time to absorb your message. Tags: resources, tips, greetings Recent Blogs Taking Your Presentations To The Next Level With Audio and Voice April 01, 2019 Tools to Support Message on Hold Production October 12, 2018 tips (186) resources (163) message on hold (154) marketing (118) customer experience (101)