A secretary in a doctor’s office creates a voicemail greeting that says, “If you have a scheduled meeting with us, we could use copies of all your medical documents from last year, so come prepared.” Using the word “could” gives patients the impression that they don’t necessarily “need” last year’s documents. See the difference between “could” and “need”? Your word choice can impact a future meeting significantly. If you want a customer to perform a specific action, you need to pay close attention to how you express your calls-to-action.
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Instead of stating the obvious, enhance your message with information your callers can use, such as how to reach someone immediately, when you will be returning calls, or where they can obtain after-hours service. Services that offer multiple custom greetings like Tendant allow you to store multiple greetings so you can have a greeting just for a holiday that you can use every year. Specify the information you want callers to leave. Your voicemail greeting presents a great opportunity to gather important details that will help you better serve your customers. This may include account numbers best times to return the call, and of course, a brief summary of the issue or purpose of the call.
Note that the secretary has asked for the reason for calling so she can prioritize the patients who need the most help. She’s also keeping it short and to the point.