You may think this is boring, but it’s what works. Leave the sales talk and the promotion for when you call them back. Leaving a greeting is all well and good, but if it has no context you’re going to struggle to stop the person from giving up on you. Make sure people know that they’ve reached the right place. Hello, this is the office of X, the Y department. Please leave your name, reason for calling, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. By mentioning the specific department or office they’ve reached, you’re reminding them that they’ve reached the right place, and this is not some generic support department they’ve been redirected to. We talk to lots of different people every day. Make sure you remind people of who you are, and why you’re the best person to handle their call (and more importantly their valuable time). Hello, my name is X, the Senior Manager of Y, I’m sorry I’m unavailable right now, but if you leave your number I’ll return your call as soon as I can. Not only have you revealed who you are, but you’ve also given them the reassurance that their call is important to you. It leaves the right impression. The order of your words can seriously impact how your greeting is received. Research shows that we remember the first and last items on a list best, so the statements that matter most are those at the beginning and those at the end. Hello, you have reached X. I’m out of the office at the moment. Provide me with your contact details and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Do you see how important the order of the words is? The name comes first and the call to action is last. Most people will put all this important information in the middle of their greeting. It may not seem like a big difference, but it really matters. It can be tempting to try to fit as much information into a voicemail greeting as possible. Don’t do that. Sometimes less is more. Try to incorporate some strategic pauses into your greeting, so you can let everything sink in. Hello, this is X from Y. [Pause] I am not available to take your call right now. [Pause] If you are calling about Z, then please leave your name and number and I will get back to you as soon as you can.
Remember to watch out for ambient noise on your end of the call as well. Train signals, traffic, or even outside conversations can be very distracting to your callers and project an unprofessional image. Don’t forget the beep. Every millisecond – yes, millisecond – between the end of your greeting and the beep is time callers could potentially drop the call. That’s why the anticipated beep should sound the moment your greeting is finished. Leaving lengthy, silent gaps may cause your customers to wonder if they’ve been disconnected. Don’t give them the opportunity to hang up waiting to hear that affirmative tone. Check and then recheck your greeting. After you complete your outgoing voicemail message, play it back to verify you’ve said everything you intended to say. Then take it a step further and dial in to experience the greeting for yourself, and be mindful to contemplate the greeting from the customer’s perspective.
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Hardware and special-use requirements: Businesses in certain industries or with unique workplace environments will have specific phone system requirements. Identifying which features are needed will help focus the search for the right phone system for your small business.
Lastly, the X Series X6 is ideal for those searching for the best virtual phone system for small business with call-center needs. This plan offers small businesses unlimited calling within 47 countries, skill-based routing, interactive voice response, queued and web callback, call recording with 10 GB storage, and contact center reporting and analytics. The price is hefty, at $110 per user, but this plan provides enterprise-grade security and is compliant with major regulations like the GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO 27001.
Simply speak into your phone or computer while recording a greeting with your business phone service. If you need to create your own audio file, the voice memo app on your phone should do fine.
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.
In this article, we’ll discuss why a voicemail greeting is important for your business and show you how to set one up with just a few simple steps.
But VoIP requires a reliable broadband Internet connection. So for businesses that don't have access to broadband, an analog system may be the only option. If you're unclear on how the two systems differ, this Guide to VoIP compares them in easy-to-understand language.
Google Meet is a video conferencing app. It is the business-oriented version of Google's Hangouts platform and is suitable for businesses of all sizes. The solution enables users to make video calls with up to 30 users per high-de... Read more
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Whether you’re using popular tools from Microsoft or Google, be sure to always take into account if these tools are useful, such as messaging platforms, SMS, emails, and phone system capabilities.
What voice do you want to convey when speaking with customers? This may be professional, casual, or even humorous.
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."
15. Hello, you’ve called [X Business Name]. We are currently closed. Our opening hours are [State opening hours]. Please visit our company website at [company website URL], or email us at [X email address]. If you’d like a callback, please leave your name and phone number, and our team will get in touch with you within 24 hours.
Ooma offers technology to assure every customer call coming in or going out from your business is crystal clear.
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.