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.
Recording voicemail greetings for your business or personal life requires a separate list of priorities, because they are being used for two distinct purposes and will be heard by two very different types of callers. I have a friend with two cell phones - one for work, and one for personal calls - and if you call both lines, you would never know it's the same person. While the message on his personal line might not be ideal, he took the time to record a professional voicemail message for his business phone, which makes it stand out.

When you’re in the process of leaving an actionable business voicemail greeting, you can’t risk any potential miscommunication. You want to pronounce each word clearly. Be mindful of where you are and what you’re doing when creating a business voicemail greeting. If you work in retail and you’re trying to come up with a holiday greeting, you might want to step away from the endless lines so you can think and speak clearly.
Voicemail Office has enabled our non-profit organization to run smoothly and efficiently while giving it the professional image of a large, multi-department office. I love the ability to easily transfer calls between extensions, even when one of us is away from our desk! Voicemail Office has also helped to consolidate our messages by allowing us to receive and store voicemail and faxes in one place. I highly recommend their services!