Wayne Rash's IT Watch Column: www.pcmag.com/it-watch Wayne Rash is a freelance writer and frequent reviewer of enterprise hardware and software. He is also a Senior Columnist for eWEEK. Email him at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @wrash. Read the latest from Wayne Rash Line2 Review RingCentral MVP Review 10 Important Points for IT Pros Migrating Their Phone Service 10 Things About VoIP You Didn't Know You Needed to Know Why Mobile VoIP Should Be Part of Your Business Phone System More from Wayne Rash facebook twitter flipboard google instagram pinterest
11. "Hi, you've reached [company]. Unfortunately, we're currently unavailable. But we want to talk to you — so please leave your name and number, as well as your reason for calling, and someone will call back ASAP."
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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.
Looking beyond COVID, VoIP makes the most sense for the vast majority of SMBs, not just because subscription costs are less expensive than buying on-site PBX hardware, but also because VoIP is the only way to keep up with evolving communication trends.
Company Description: Nextiva is a large virtual phone service provider and a well-known brand within the industry. They allow companies to register toll-free 1-800 numbers or local numbers anywhere in the U.S. Their setup for their service is instantaneous — once you pay, you’ll be able to begin using Nextiva right away. Their features include the ability to use their service on a mobile device and manage your calls online from anywhere in the world.
Check out http://www.mightycall.com, all the features of many of the small business phone solutions listed above + integrated social channels, activity queue and more.
It isn’t always convenient to keep a browser window open that displays your online voicemail manager. Let’s face it, we probably have too many tabs open already.
8. "Hi, you've reached [your name]. I'm unable to come to the phone right now. But if you leave your name, number, and a short message, I'll be sure to call back."
Business owners can display a more professional image to potential customers for a low cost by using a virtual phone number. Users can also provide themselves with the features users of more expensive business phone systems enjoy. The virtual phone number also allows business owners to keep their personal cell or landline number private while using the same device to manage their business.
10. "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."
A quick web search reveals a number of business options for transcribing voicemail message audio into a text format. Many service providers offer such transcription capability as part of the overall phone service plans they sell, allowing their business customers to have company-wide access to text-based voicemail without being forced to seek a third party for that functionality.
5. Voicemail Greetings For Vacation. As mentioned above, alerting callers that they won’t be getting an immediate call back is of upmost importance for an entity’s reputation and a caller’s satisfaction.
Company Description: Have you ever wished that you could have a little extra context about previous conversations before you pick up a call from a customer or colleague? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little background information before saying “Hello?” That’s exactly what Callture offers with their virtual phone service that features their patented “memo-on-call” feature. The memo-on-call feature allows you to record a memo after the call. Then, when the person calls back, the memo will be played to you while the caller hears the ringing on the other side.
VoIP packages generally offer the most features at economical pricing, but are subject to the vagaries of your current ISP. You may also be on the hook for purchasing their equipment.
Looking ahead to 2022, you'll see UCaaS extending into another sector of integration, namely desktop as a service (DaaS). Services like these will become popular for hybrid work because they let IT pros push out fully managed corporate desktops virtually so users can access them from anywhere and (almost) any device. Just like VoIP, DaaS solutions let IT pros manage those desktops from a web console. This makes deploying new desktops, removing unneeded ones, super simple.
If done tastefully, you can promote your products or services on your voicemail greeting without sounding pushy. In fact, it’s a great way to keep customers up-to-date on company events, sales, and other news. Be sure to keep it short and have fun with it.
37. Hi, this is [company name]. Sorry we missed your call. Leave a message and we’ll get back to you shortly.