The basic rule of thumb is that callers should hear one of two things when they first connect with your voicemail — either an apology for not being able to answer the call or a “thank you” for having called. You can do both if you prefer, but keep it short and to the point.
My disdain for voicemail stems from my days in the mobile industry within the B2B channel. In one of the positions, I had a colossal client base that I was responsible for managing. I was constantly bombarded with calls from customers. Dial into voicemail "Please enter your password." "You have... Seven... Unheard messages. To listen to your messages press 1." "Your message from 9...8...0...4...6...1...9...8...9...9 sent Thursday... September, 19th 2016... at... 4:30 pm.
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Sometimes, you need to step away from work and live a little! This is perfectly okay, but make sure you leave a well-recorded voicemail greeting to keep your customers happy and content. Read these two examples of professional vacation greetings.
We all know that when we’re at our busiest, regardless of what we do for a living, there’s not enough time in the day to get to everyone’s needs. Most people understand this and are accommodating, provided the voicemail they’re greeted with is informative and actionable. In 2019, where personalized experiences are of the utmost importance, it’s imperative for businesses to prioritize the customer experience and build their strategies around the customer.
-If your phone has a gangsta rap ring-back tone, then I might wait for you to answer.-I would thank you for calling, but I haven’t heard what you have to say yet.-I have nothing to say to you. So leave a message. -“Think fast!” *beep* -Hi, you’ve reached _____.
31. Howdy, you’ve reached [your name]. I’ll be out of the situation of job from [start date] to [end date]. Please toddle away a message and I’ll return your name upon my return. Alternatively, you can be ready to email me at [email address] or name [name] at [phone number] for instant assistance. Thanks for calling!
Exceptional live customer service and cloud-hosted phone systems with multiple extensions, call routing, voicemail, fax and a professional business voicemail greeting allow you to connect with your customers, no matter where you are. AccessDirect helps small businesses meet the communications needs of an increasingly virtual world.
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.
12. “Hello, you’ve reached the Customer Support department at [company name]. We are unable to take your call at the moment. We know your time is valuable so instead of placing you on hold, let us call you back! Please leave your name, phone number, the reason for your call, and two different times that are convenient for you to receive a call back from us. Thank you!” Get a better idea of your caller’s schedule by asking them for a few different times you can call back. Their time is important, too!
“Congratulations! You’ve reached the right person! It’s [your name]. Unfortunately, you’ve called at the wrong time. Please leave a message with all your contact information, and I’ll call you back within 24 hours.”
Voicemail is a voice message that a caller leaves when the person called is absent or is busy with another conversation.
In practice, most businesses are simply handling this on a case-by-case basis since COVID is a temporary problem. Most home networks can handle the extra load as long as the employee makes sure that other latency-sensitive traffic, like gaming or video streaming, is kept to a minimum during the hours when they need to talk. If some home routers develop problems, IT staff simply build a queue and handle those one at a time. Sometimes they'll be able to access the router remotely with the employee's permission, sometimes they'll have to walk that employee through configuration steps to fix the problem. Sometimes the employee will just have to live with it unless the company springs for a new router or a higher bandwidth tier from the employee's ISP.
“Hey! You’ve reached us here at [XYZ company]. All our team is currently out of the office for the holidays. We’ll be back to work on [date] well-fed and therefore eager to speak with you!
Depending on the specific provider you choose, you may be able to set up a basic phone system online in about 10 minutes.
Aside from these cases, most businesses should consider using an off-site or "hosted" PBX. It is an option on many small business VoIP systems and offered by many ITSPs. The big benefit with a hosted PBX is it can offer more advanced phone system functions, such as auto-attendants and IVRs, without the expense of purchasing and managing an on-site hardware PBX.
The main point that we want to drive home with this article is that you shouldn’t overthink your business voicemail greeting. Just keep it short, and state the relevant information.
VirtualPBX has recently presented its brand-new Flex plan, which further cements this company’s place on our best business phone service provider list. Flex is packed with features that make it ideal for remote teams – an invaluable option during this pandemic. When you pick this plan, you can choose one VoIP phone from its offer and add more devices for a small cost. Features include two local or toll-free numbers, unlimited local minutes and text messaging, video/audio conferencing, Zapier integration, call-log reports, and much more.