9. “Hey, it’s [your name] at [your company] – thanks for giving me a call! I can’t wait to chat. Just leave your name, number and I’ll call you back as soon as I have the chance. Better yet, send me a text with the best time to reach you and the reason for your call. Looking forward to hearing from you.” Text communication is becoming much more relevant now. Direct your caller to text you in case they have a question you can answer easier via text. Who knows, they might prefer text messages to phone calls too.
Whether you’re out for the day or are off for the week, the first rule of an out of office voicemail greeting is: let callers know when you’ll be back! You’ll save them the frustration of continuing to call and yourself the hassle of listening to redundant voicemails. It’s also a good idea to set the expectation of whether you are answering messages while you’re away, and who they can reach for assistance in your absence.
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Good voicemail greetings should include your name and/or company, your reason for missing the call or an apology, and instructions for leaving a message. How to Turn Your Customer Complaints into Business Benefits 50% of Business Owners Over 50 Back Trump's National Emergency Declaration How Zoho Bookings Helps Your Business Grow Square Seller Fees Stay Consistent as PayPal, Venmo Raise Rates Sponsored by Square Use Emojis in your Business Communications? Than Check Out These! How Can Your Alma Mater Help Your Small Business? Annie Pilon is a Senior Staff Writer for Small Business Trends, covering entrepreneur profiles, interviews, feature stories, community news and in-depth, expert-based guides. When she’s not writing she can be found on her personal blog Wattlebird, and exploring all that her home state of Michigan has to offer. Small Business Trends is an award-winning online publication for small business owners, entrepreneurs and the people who interact with them. Our mission is to bring you "Small business success, delivered daily."
A voicemail greeting, on the other hand, refers to the message that your callers hear upon answering the phone. Voicemail greetings can include any information you’d wish to convey, such as special sales, bargains, alternate phone numbers to use, or your company’s normal working hours.
Vendors like VirtualPBX sell hosted systems to offer businesses a simple method of creating voice networks. Businesses purchase subscriptions from a vendor and connect their IP phones to that vendor’s voice network.
Context does matter here. If the caller would reasonably expect you to answer the phone (such as if they were calling a store or other place of business), an apology for not being able to get to the phone makes the most sense.
>Check out these great Christmas voice mail message ideas from the folks at Smart on Hold
A relatively unprofessional one — like mine, for instance — does the opposite: It encourages prospects, recruiters, and potential connections to run in the other direction.
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Of course, you can always listen to your messages directly from your answering machine, but some models allow you to access messages remotely as well. Most involve calling your phone and entering a code or following voice prompts to access the messages.
But professionalism also means paying attention to detail. Imagine if you were to leave a voicemail without mentioning any of the following: • Your full name. • Name of the recipient, if important. • Your company name. • What it’s regarding. • Phone number for the call back. • Brief message.
The biggest barrier is actually getting them to leave the voicemail in the first place. Don’t get in your own way by recording a long, drawn-out voicemail greeting that might do more to convince them to hang up than actually leave a message.
You don’t have to spell out every single thing that you think they might want to know. Have some faith that your callers will be able to figure things out on their own. Be natural but informative.
8. The Professional Script. Some prospects need you to sound professional. All they want is a straightforward solution to their pain points.
While phones and other devices are getting better all the time, there are frequently problems with audio recorded on low-quality equipment. Static pops, grainy voice quality, and background noise interference are all common with audio recorded on non-professional equipment.
These issues limit the quality of the recording because the amateur actor doesn’t know how to speak with the proper enunciation and cadence for phone system recordings, and there’s no experienced director handy to provide guidance.
Put some thought into your message before you hit “record.” It takes very little time to write a script for yourself to read as you record your greeting. Reading off a script eliminates unnecessary pauses, “ums” and “ahs.”