A secretary in a doctor’s office creates a voicemail greeting that says, “If you have a scheduled meeting with us, we could use copies of all your medical documents from last year, so come prepared.” Using the word “could” gives patients the impression that they don’t necessarily “need” last year’s documents. See the difference between “could” and “need”? Your word choice can impact a future meeting significantly. If you want a customer to perform a specific action, you need to pay close attention to how you express your calls-to-action.
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.
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Hello, (your name) summer home. Some are home, some aren’t. Leave your message at the tone.
I’m home right now . . . I’m just screening my calls. So just start talking and if you’re someone I want to speak to I’ll pick up the phone. Otherwise, well, what can I say?
The elegance of LinkedPhone’s cloud-based virtual phone system is how easy it is to configure complex tasks. First, tap the keypad button you’d like to configure. Second, tap the function you would like to perform. Third, provide a name for your call menu option. If you’re setting up call routing, simply tap the people you’d like to route calls to. It’s really that easy. The images below illustrate how easy it is to set up a call menu option that routes calls to select team members.
Get more than 20 features standard, including our enhanced voicemail, which lets multiple people share the same number but have their own voicemail box. Ensure your customers can always find you with hunt groups and call forwarding, so if one line is unavailable the call automatically rolls over to the next, or even rings a completely different phone number such as a home phone or mobile phone.
04You have reached the offices of [your company/business]. Our representatives are all currently engaged. If you leave us a message with your name and number, we will get back to you in the earliest possible time. Thank you for calling and have a good day. Lines can often get busy for companies that have several representatives. This reassures clients that someone will get back to them once they are free.
LEVEL 6, BRILLIANT SOLITAIRE, SCHEME No 78 PART 2, VIJAYNAGAR, INDORE (M.P.) – 452010 IN P: +91 731 6725516 | M: [email protected]
We’re keeping it simple with this one. Just a few basic elements to help you get started. As long as you know who your audience is, the message you wish to convey, and the information you need from the caller, the rest should fall into place quite nicely. Let’s face it, a voicemail greeting for a lumber company will probably be different than that of a psychologist’s office. One greeting is aimed at securing potential customers, and the other is geared towards appointments, more or less. Once you are certain who your caller is, the better your voicemail. Center on your audience, first and foremost. Knowing what to relate ensures that your caller will leave the right message. For instance, if you’re a retail store, you would include your hours of operations, and perhaps any specials that you’re running. If you are a therapist’s office, then you’d need to include an alternate number in case a patient is having an issue and requires immediate help. Again, this will vary depending on the business. Here, a therapist would definitely request the caller leave their contact information. However, a retail store chain might not request that. There are also complex voicemail systems such as those used by mobile phone services, which ask you to press a certain number on your phone, where you are asked to leave your account information. Again, as you can see, it all boils down to the demographics of your callers, and what you need from them to conduct the best business possible. Depending on the situation, your caller might be in a good mood or not. In either case, they’ll probably be eagerly awaiting your call. So, it stands to reason that you only promise them a call back if you can deliver. In other words, if you’re a small shop and you’ve decided to close due to a much-needed sabbatical, then don’t leave a voicemail greeting where you promise them to call right back. However, if you have an active customer service staff, then you can promise to return their call within the same day.
Perhaps the most important feature of any business voicemail service is its acceptance of custom greetings.
Voicemail essentials: Identify yourself because you need to reassure the client that they have called the correct number. Clients will be a lot less likely to leave a message if they wonder who will get it. Use a warm friendly voice to say something like, “You have reached xxxx, licensed mental health counselor.”
Hello. You’ve reached the establishment of Binder and Binder Law Offices in West Chapel. We regret we are not here to answer your call. However, your call is important to us, so please leave your contact information and a brief message at the tone, and we’ll get back to you shortly. It’s been a pleasure receiving your call.
Hello, it’s obvious you have bad timing, because nobody is home. Please leave your name, telephone number, and a brief message in a voice similar to mine, and your call will be returned as soon as humanly possible.
Managing costs, while still getting the best level of service, is critically important for small businesses. Costs must be kept low so that you can continue to invest in your business, improve your profit margins, and build the life you have always dreamed of. One expense that can quickly add up for any business is communication costs. Between Internet charges, phone plans, mobile devices, and professional email services, you could be spending hundreds of dollars each month. Luckily, there is a way for you to cut back on communication costs without giving up service quality.
And its built-in mobility features allow calls to be made and received on your smartphone exactly as if you were sitting in front of your desk phone — even hand off an active call from one phone to the other without placing the caller on hold! With Switchvox, the possibilities are endless and the price is surprisingly affordable.
That rich feature fabric can change radically between vendors, however. For example, RingCentral's softphone offers a long list of app integrations and features, including not just collaboration platforms, but bi-directional email and scheduling among other things. Line2's softphone client, on the other hand, is specifically designed to be simple so users can pick it up quickly, and it does this by mostly mirroring the buttons you'd find on a standard desktop handset. Two ends of the spectrum, but that means you need to be very careful when testing these apps to make sure you're getting not only what you need but in the right way for how your company does work.
Ninja Number claims to be the world’s first artificial-intelligence powered virtual phone system. Some of the features are a bit different from competitive offerings so study them carefully. Plans start at $9.95/month for unlimited minutes. There’s also a “no credit card” free trial. Feature We Like: Offers a conversational interface to walk you through getting set up. Then the software evaluates your communication patterns and makes recommendations, including telling which calls you need to return.