8×8 places its efforts on ensuring they have a truly unified cloud-based communication system that works simply and seamlessly with your business.
1-VoIP is a service designed to be simple and affordable without some of the bells and whistles that other providers offer. For some, this should be a welcome offering. For others who want a more advanced, feature-rich offering, 1-VOIP may fall short of expectations. The service starts at under $10 per month and provides all basic phone services including voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, and more. However, there is no mobile app or desktop interface to take your calling on the go. Essentially, your business can save on phone costs and give up the mobility features offered by competitors. Plus, the setup is amongst the easiest of all the providers on this list. For simplicity and low cost, 1-VOIP checks off all the boxes.
.
Pricing: TalkRoute’s plans start at $19 per month and go all the way up to $99 per month. Each setup up in plan offers more advanced features that are suited for different business uses.
Editor's Note: Looking for Business Phone Systems for your company? If you would like information to help you choose the one that's right for you, use the questionnaire below to have our partner, BuyerZone, provide you with information for free:
Products Tendant Voice™ Tendant Messaging™ Tendant Webapp™ Tendant Control Panel™ Tendant Enterprise™ Solutions Legal & Professional Services Corporate SMB/Individual Resources APIs & Integrations Blog Partnerships Contact Login Get Started
Grasshopper's features also can help make a small business look larger. For example, everyone in your office can have an extension. If you want to create a more professional appearance for inbound calling, Grasshopper provides customizable main greetings, routing for extensions, a name directory, music on hold, and a voice studio (for a small upcharge) if you don't like your own voice and you'd like a voice actor to tell your customers to press 13 for new sales.
A professional voicemail greeting can be the difference between a caller proceeding on to deliver their message or simply hanging up. Ensure you take the time to craft the right voicemail greeting for your business.
Check out our roundup of the Best CRMs for Small BusinessesHow does VoIP pricing work?
10 Voicemail Greeting Scripts. Now that you know the principles of our voicemail greeting philosophy, it is time to take a closer look at some standard and best-practice examples you can use for your business.
There you have it, a basic introduction into how to write the best voicemail greetings. As you have seen, they’re not as easy as you’d think, but once you get comfortable with the type of information required by each, writing and recording your own should be a piece of cake. If you’ve tried to write one yourself and still don’t ‘feel you’ve captured the right essence, then please look at one of our voicemails greeting templates. When it comes to recording it, remember to rehearse your script and speak clearly. If you don’t care for your own voice, then have someone else record it, or hire a professional voice actor. Remember, there are also free audio editing software programs like Audacity, where you can manipulate your recording until you get exactly what you want.
Voicemail examples provided by Snap Recordings Your voicemail message matters. Jackie Silver is a professional voice-over artist with 25 years of experience. On the subject of business voicemail, she says, “Voice is the first connection a client has to the business – make it count!”
Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, professional voicemail greetings make your business look more professional, and can also help to increase sales and improve customer satisfaction.
This “Product Review” is a lot less helpful that is first appears. It amounts to little more that a list of providers, with no attempt to provide a feature-by-feature comparison, something that a “real” product review would provide. For example, which providers use a phone adapter (a la Vonage)? How many minutes do you get for the plan(s) mentions? Etc.
Consider these points while creating your business voicemail script: Every single call is a lead for you, so either there’s an opportunity to leave a great impression or an opportunity to sell something. Your business voicemail greeting should pass on the right message. Be apologetic about not receiving the customer call.
Maintaining a PBX system may offer some comfort to those who have this technology, but the cost of maintaining an office system in a closet or on a desk can be substantially higher than VoIP, especially as the hardware ages and as VoIP technology continues to improve.
Sometimes the difference between the winner listed above and the company in second place is something as simple as price or hardware. For small businesses or small offices, Jive's service features starting at the base price of $19.95 a month per user were extremely appealing, and the company offers more features than Grasshopper. While Ooma has almost everything a small business wants or needs, keep in mind the company requires the purchase of a $99 base station if you want to keep your existing phones and landline, plus an additional $20 monthly charge per phone. In the end, the outlay of cash needed to purchase equipment may be more than a small company can bear.
4. “Thanks for calling [your company]. We’re looking forward to speaking with you. Let us call you back as soon as we are available by leaving your name, contact information and the reason for your call. Have a great day.” A simple, concise, and, of course, friendly voicemail greeting for your main business line.