You don’t want to answer calls 24/7 (unless you’re serving clients globally and there’s an expectation of 24/7 support). If you’re unavailable during specific hours of the day, use the voicemail examples below for after-hours business calls.
Professional voicemail greetings for work can be critical for giving your business a good level of credibility. By using one of our ready-made messages, you can save yourself time and impress the other party. Feel free to add a personal touch to make your voicemail message fun and interesting.
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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.
With German-engineered sound design, the new Snom series is designed to provide the small business market with the best sound quality and make it easier to add new people and integrate employees who use their mobile phone more than their desk phone. The new platform can start with just 2 lines and 2 phones, then easily grow up to 100 lines and up to 300 cordless, desk phones, and smartphone mobile users. And it’s your choice to have your phone services hosted in the cloud or installed to traditional landline phone lines in your closet — whatever makes the best financial sense for your organization right now.
In short, more often than not, voicemail greetings feel bleak and boring to callers. If you’re a business, boredom is an awful way to start off the conversation with potential customers. Since the attention span of a human being fluctuates around 8-10 seconds, filling them up with a standard voicemail greeting is the worst idea you can have.
“Hi, you’ve reached [your name]. I’m away from[date] to [date]. If you need help with [X] before then, please contact [name] at [phone number]. Everyone else, please leave your name and number and I’ll return your call when I return. Thanks and have a great day.” “Hello, you’ve reached [your name]. I’m currently [exploring Asia, hiking through the jungle in Costa Rica, hanging out on the beach in Bermuda] — or more likely, [recovering from extreme jet lag, googling ‘Are red spiders poisonous,’ or looking for SPF 150 sunscreen] and won’t be back in the office until [date]. Leave your contact info and reason for calling and I’ll get in touch then.” “Hey there, this is [your name] from [your company]. I’m out of the office until [date]. In the meantime, please direct your inquiries to [coworker’s name] at [email address]. [He, she] can also be reached at [phone number]. Thank you.”
They're most basic plan covers up to 10 users, which is perfect for in-office start-ups. Their higher-level plans offer integration applications such as Zendesk and Salesforce. They also offer more features including automatic call reporting and predictive dialer. RingCentral has received a lot of positive feedback regarding its easy to use interface and robust features. They also offer the opportunity to scale up and down as needed with ease.
The Sprout pricing plan is an attractive option for small teams that need internet phone numbers to professionally handle their business calls. This plan includes basic features like call forwarding, call queuing, custom greetings and ringtone customization. It comes without a monthly user fee, so you’ll only pay for the minutes you spend. The call rates vary depending on the country the call is coming from or going to. Incoming domestic calls are charged $0.028 per minute whereas outgoing calls cost $0.022 per minute.
Virtual phone numbers are an excellent way to keep your personal text and phone calls separate from your business texts and phone calls. The numbers come with features like auto-attendants, voicemail, and fax. These features are all valuable to the entrepreneur who must run a business without the employee support to maintain office responsibilities. A virtual phone number will also add a bit of credibility to small businesses.
A relatively unprofessional one — like mine, for instance — does the opposite: It encourages prospects, recruiters, and potential connections to run in the other direction.
Small business voicemail greeting examples. Creating a good voicemail greeting isn’t difficult, but creating a great one can be tricky. You don’t want to waste time, and you want to maximize the caller’s experience and exposure to your brand—all in about fifteen seconds and without making them hang up.
Cell phone voicemail greetings are generally more personal and casual than office phones. Consider a greeting like “Hello, you’ve reached [your name]’s cell phone. I can’t take your call at the moment, but if you leave a brief message, I’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.”
In a nutshell, a good voicemail greeting should only be brief but also complete, simple but also professional. It should only meet its purpose of leaving a quick message to the listener or informing a caller that although you haven’t taken the call, you’re going to get back to it at the soonest time available.
Looking for virtual business phone services? eVoice is a business phone system that acts like other business phone systems, but the difference is you can be anywhere and receive your calls using their cloud-based PBX phone line. They even offer a live receptionist service that will take your calls and provide a host of administrative services, like booking appointments, collecting customer information, processing payments, you name it. eVoice offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, which is among the longest of the services we’ve researched You can get a free, professionally recorded greeting if requested within seven days of setting up your account eVoice offers the most phone numbers available per plan, starting with three numbers on the lowest plan and up to 33 numbers on the most expensive plan A credit card must be entered to start a free trial, and from customer reviews available online, the cancellation policy of eVoice is not reliable A phone number cannot be ported or used on services outside of eVoice unless it had been ported into eVoice in the first place and requires a $40 service fee to complete Unlike many competitors, eVoice does not have an unlimited minutes plan for calls to the US and Canada. While this lowers the entry price, it can lead to a more variable monthly cost Standard Features Call forwarding Virtual answering service Advanced call routing Voicemail Custom greetings Call screening Web portal and mobile app Call queueing Pricing 11 users 30,000 minutes per month 33 toll-free or local phone numbers Unlimited extensions Inbound online faxing One user 30,000 minutes per month Three toll-free or local phone numbers Unlimited extensions Inbound online faxing Six users 30,000 minutes per month 18 toll-free or local phone numbers Unlimited extensions Inbound online faxing 10 users 30,000 minutes per month 30 toll-free or local phone numbers Unlimited extensions Inbound online faxing
This article is about the second main type of greeting – the voicemail greeting. All businesses should have professional voicemail greetings at the company level (i.e. your general business number), department level (e.g. customer service), and employee level, where applicable. It’s important that each of these voicemail greetings align with the brand and personality of your company to ensure that every caller has a consistent experience. Let’s dive in!
As a bonus, here is an example of our own holiday voicemail greeting here at OpenPhone:
Hello. Thank you for contacting [Business Name]. Unfortunately, we are not currently available at the moment. Our regular office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4 pm, closed during the weekend. Please leave a message along with your name and number, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.