Don’t leave customers and colleagues on edge. If you say you’re going to call them back, follow up. If you tend to fall behind in this area, encourage them to email you or reach out in another way. Better yet, learn how to forward voicemail to email so you can access the message anywhere.
Hi, my name is Dew Tinnin. I'm a speaker, sales coach and consultant, and CEO of Skillway. I live in Nashville, TN with my husband, Shane, and our dog, Peanut. My stepson, Spencer, attends St. Cloud State University. I enjoy reading, running and traveling. BlogArchives (List of All Posts) Subscribe Via Email About Dew Work with MeSales Coaching Executive Coaching Sales Training Sales Consulting Speaking Testimonials Contact Me Client Login Consulting Digital Marketing Social Media PPC SEO Blog Outreach PR ORM Web Design Contact Us Startups Finance Investing Crypto Tech Real Estate Sales Retail HR Insurance Loan Law Ring Ring: How to Create Professional Voicemail Greetings for Your Business Nowadays, a business without good voicemail greetings is like a house without a front door. Yet, in spite of this, we often call a business with a question--only to get a mechanical-sounding message followed by static-infused muzak. If this has happened to you--as it surely has--you think, "Why do I need this business? "Don't they have competitors?" "What kind of unprofessional voicemail greeting was that?" And then you hang up, frustrated and angry. Unbeknownst to the business, they have lost a potential client. Even if you weren't sure you were going to become their client, you are not likely to now. The business, no doubt in an effort to streamline, actually wound up hurting its reputation without even realizing it. It seems traditional phone greetings have become a lost art. So, in this article, we will discuss the often unrecognized value of a professional voicemail greeting--a lone tree in a forest of convenience-enhancing technologies. Traditionally, when a great receptionist saw someone walk in the door, he immediately put aside whatever he was working on and gave the visitor a broad smile and a warm greeting. Then he would find out how he could help. Maybe it would be answering a quick question or a request to see someone, either with or without an appointment. Then he escorted the person to the appropriate office or offered to make an appointment. Being "consistently dependable" is one of the top qualities to look for and value in a receptionist. Who in your office has a pleasant and professional-sounding voice? A voice that exudes confidence and capability? Approach that person immediately about being the "voice of the machine." No, don't ask for volunteers or choose someone based on seniority. Get the one with the voice! After all, it's about making a good impression for the business. Develop a script for this person and have her or him make multiple recordings for practice. You don't want there to be any pauses, throat clearings, etc. on the recording. You and a few others should listen to, reach consensus on, and approve those this employee considers her or his best. Below are some very basic scripts, adapted from sample scripts on Hubspot. Use these if the message is for a personal office: "Hello, this is [your name]. Thank you for your call. I'm away from my desk right now. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible." "Hello, you've reached [your name]. I'm unable to come to the phone right now. But if you leave your name, number and a short message, I'll be sure to call back either later today or tomorrow." "Hello, you've reached [X company]. We can't take your call at the moment, but please leave your name, contact information, and reason for calling and one of our team members will be in touch within 24 hours." "Hello, you've reached [company]. We're available by phone from [0:00] to [0:00] [time zone] Monday through Friday [optional: and from 0:00 to 0:00 on the weekends]. You can also contact us by going to our website, [URL], and live-chatting or emailing us. If you'd like us to call you back, please leave your name and number after the beep." Remember, if you've promised a reply in your greeting, you should do so as soon as possible. The following are features we feel are important for any medium-to-large business--or even small businesses, depending on staffing. This service is also known as "call hunting" or "call routing." It won't make an employee less busy; in fact, it might add to workload. However, it makes it easier for the employee to receive calls while out of the office. It's actually two call-forwarding services that are commonly used in conjunction with each other. Find me service allows the user to receive calls at any location; follow me service allows the user to be reached at any of several phone numbers. "When you receive an email, you can read it from your computer in the office, your tablet at home, your cell phone on the road or any other device with Internet access." So why not the same convenience with voicemail messages? In fact, with FMFM, this is exactly what's possible for phone messages. The busy employee can access voicemail messages from virtually any Internet-connected device, including e-mail. In some cases, the messages can be transcribed into e-mail or texts. Businesses and private consumers alike now have access to various voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) phone services. You might already be getting this service through your home cable and internet package (sometimes called "triple play"). VOIP is a hardware and software pairing that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls by sending voice data in packets using IP rather than by traditional circuit transmissions (i.e., old-fashioned phone lines). VOIP often provides the foundation for a private business exchange (PBX), which is an internal phone system. Having a PBX can offer a business many desirable phone features, including FMFM. Voicemail menu trees, which we've all encountered at one time or another, are helpful for saving employee time by not allowing a caller to reach the wrong person when needing to address a particular concern. However, they can be tremendously frustrating to the caller, who might spend an hour or more selecting options in the tree--only to be improperly routed or disconnected altogether and need to start all over again. Nowadays, trees are expected and grudgingly tolerated by people calling government agencies, medical centers, or other large bureaucracies. But businesses should steer clear of these as much as possible--or at least find ways to mitigate their use. The last thing you want to do is put a potential customer through this kind of headache. If you must use them, try to have a live human on the line no more than three selections in. It's clear that outstanding service in the 21st century isn't about technology alone. Nor is it about moving away from the values of true, personalized customer service. New voicemail technologies can add a lot of convenience for both callers and businesses. However, these need to be used with a mind to the attentiveness and "human touch" that characterized the classic "great receptionist" discussed above. If you're looking for a way to add a human voice to the many technological interfaces, or you're looking for a simple solution that "packs a punch," we have it. This voice over service could help you personalize your business voicemail greetings--and save you a lot of time and effort as well! What good is a potential client who can never reach you? Or one who has an unpleasant experience with a voicemail greetings menu or poorly recorded voicemail messages? Remember that your personal voicemail greeting is part of your business's brand, and thus can have either a positive or a negative effect on your reputation. Opt for the positive effect and have your voicemail recorded by a human being with a pleasant and engaging tone of voice. Do this now, before you lose clients! Bootstrap Business Blog Newest Posts From Mike Schiemer, Partners, And News Outlets Why Cryptocurrency Is A High Risk Investment Quanloop Review For Investors How To Choose A Reliable Business Supplier What To Know About FIFA Coin Sellers Best Smartphone Apps To Hack Phones Remotely The Business Benefits Of Using Digital Signage Additional Articles On The Bootstrap Business Blog By Owner Mike Schiemer And Partners In 2021, top MLM (multi-level marketing) businesses are about making customers healthier and improving their lifestyle. MLM in 2021 is als...

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Important: Due to HIPAA policies and guidelines, all BAA users cannot have the contents of any voice message sent through e-mail, however they may be notified of new messages through e-mail. Departmental and MPhysicians accounts do not have the ability to log into the Voicemail Portal. 1HELP personnel may use Clearspan to configure voicemail to email for the caller. If the caller would like to send an email to multiple addresses, they may forward voice messages to a Google Group. Log into the Web Portal. If you are off-campus, you must connect to Split Tunnel VPN to access the Clearspan Portal. Click on Messaging in the Options menu on the left. Once on the Messaging screen select the option for Voice Management where you will have two options for setting up voicemail to email: If you want to strictly get your voicemail within your email (recommended) in the middle section titled "When a message arrives..." choose "Forward it to this email address:" and then put your email in the box. If you want to get a copy of the message both on your phone AND in your email leave the middle section alone and go to the bottom under Additionally... and choose E-mail a carbon copy of the message to and then put your email in to the box. Be careful here, though, as you'll still need to log into your phone to delete any messages you get this way! NOTE; "Use Phone Message Waiting Indicator" box is selected to notify user that a new message has arrived and requires attention. This will illuminate the voicemail light on the phone. - check the box for "Notify me by e-mail of the new message at this address" and fill in the email address. Once you have made the desired changes click the Apply button at the top or bottom of the screen to finalize your changes.