Remember to watch out for ambient noise on your end of the call as well. Train signals, traffic, or even outside conversations can be very distracting to your callers and project an unprofessional image. Don’t forget the beep. Every millisecond – yes, millisecond – between the end of your greeting and the beep is time callers could potentially drop the call. That’s why the anticipated beep should sound the moment your greeting is finished. Leaving lengthy, silent gaps may cause your customers to wonder if they’ve been disconnected. Don’t give them the opportunity to hang up waiting to hear that affirmative tone. Check and then recheck your greeting. After you complete your outgoing voicemail message, play it back to verify you’ve said everything you intended to say. Then take it a step further and dial in to experience the greeting for yourself, and be mindful to contemplate the greeting from the customer’s perspective.
You are living in 2020 and you do realize that your prospects can come to you anytime, which means you need to be catering to them whenever that happens, at 3 am in the morning or even at 11 pm in the night.

1. Thank Them or Apologize. 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.
Thanks for all the great advice you share on the Manners Mentor blog! Here is my situation. I hope you can help. Sometimes I’m good at leaving a voicemail that’s to the point, but most of the time I feel like I’m a babbling idiot. I never know how much information to leave. How much is too much? How much isn’t enough, especially in a professional setting? I would love to know your thoughts on this. Best wishes for a wonderful week!