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“Hello, you’ve reached [X company]. We can’t take your call right now, but please leave your name, contact information, and reason for reaching out, and one of our team members will be in touch within 24 hours.” “Hi, you’ve reached [company]. Unfortunately, we’re currently unavailable. But we want to talk to you — so please leave your name and number, as well as your reason for calling, and someone will call back ASAP.” “Hi, you’ve reached [company]. We’re available by phone from [hour] to [hour] [time zone] Monday through Friday [optional: and from hour to hour 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.” “Hello, you’ve reached [company]. If you’re looking for information on [X], please check out our [Facebook page, company website, etc.] If you want to know more about [Y], take a look at [Z page on our site, our YouTube channel, etc.] Still have more questions, or just want to hear our lovely voices? Leave your name and number, and we’ll return your call straight away.”
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Now, for today’s lesson, I want to answer three questions about voicemail in English. Here’s what you’re going to learn: Basic rules to follow for voicemail. What you should and shouldn’t say when you leave a voicemail with some examples. What you should include in your own voice message for those moments when you can’t get to your phone.
Users often don’t invest enough time into their messages, resulting in incomplete, unprofessional, or otherwise under-whelming greetings. Sure, crafting a greeting doesn’t sound all that complicated; however, there are a number of pitfalls users can fall into—i.e. informality, terseness, sincerity, lack of direction, and more. While none of these sound too catastrophic, they are often interrelated. As such, they tend to worsen any problem. For example, humor can cause informality, worsen ambiguity, and weaken sincerity. That being said, users should strive to avoid ALL these pitfalls.
You can’t always get to the phone when clients, partners, investors, or colleagues call you. When this happens, a professional voicemail greeting helps you make a positive impression and tells them what to do next. There are a variety of ways to convey your message. If you’re not sure what type of message to record for your own voicemail box, here’s a definitive guide to get you started.
Here are 5 sample scripts for business voicemail greetings that will make you and your company look personable, knowledgeable, and professional. And here are some sample voicemail greeting scripts for doctors, lawyers, and dentists, in case you're not looking for business greetings.
For those with voicemail greetings that get changed about as often as a new president is elected, know that this is doing a serious disservice to the caller-recipient relationship. It signals to callers that the business is anything but an authority, most likely not very detail oriented, and has questionable overall credibility and competency. Those aren’t traits that any business wants to
State your name first. You would think this would be so basic that it shouldn’t even be mentioned. However, I can’t count the number of times I’ve gotten voicemails where people go on and on and I don’t even know who’s talking to me until the very end. Pretty annoying.
5. Check and reply. Some clients will have a shortlist of people they want to call, so you may not be the only one they are considering. Therefore, make sure you check your messages and reply as soon as you possibly can.
In order to proceed, simply complete our simple billing form by clicking here and place your contact phone number in the “Voicemail Office Number” box and your script and name of talent in the comments box, so that we can setup an account to be billed for the professional recording(s). You will then receive a price, if over the 100 words, or be billed the one-time $49 (or $99 for on-hold announcements), and your voiceover files will be sent by email once completed.
5. Don’t Forget To Smile. Smiling is a total game-changer when it comes to the tone of your voicemail greeting. We’ve all heard someone smiling through a phone, but we rarely think about how different it sounds when we do.
Might sound a bit alarming but consider the number of times you’ve tried to leave a voicemail only to hear “this voicemail box is full”. Even if you can leave a message, a millennial may never listen to it. After you’ve made the call, whether you were able to leave a voicemail or not, follow up with a text message to get their attention and hopefully a response.
Hello! You have reached the voicemail of John Doe . Please leave your name, phone number, and a brief message and she will return your call as soon as possible. Thank you and have a great day.
The answer is to ensure a customer-friendly experience for the caller – even if the call ends up in voicemail.
3. Hi, this is [your name] of [your business]. I’m currently unable to take your call. Please leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, and I will contact you as soon as possible. Thanks.
For example, a message like, “Hi, this is Jim. You know what to do.” Well, not everyone is going to know what to do—i.e. they won’t leave you inclusive information. Additionally, they may not leave you a message at all. Aside from this, humor can again be detrimental to your message, this time lending itself to ambiguity and costing you clarity. For example, if a message read, “Hi this is Jim, sorry I can’t answer your call right now. Please leave your name and number and I’ll call you as soon as I can, but you already knew that right? Do I need to tell you what to do?” This is worse than the previous example as this is confusing and can also come across as rude and unprofessional. Complicating a greeting with phrasing like this is sure to cause some harm. e. Ignoring Personality & Identity: Don’t use computer generated greetings. Some users leave default messages (‘you’ve reached the voicemail box of 777-777-777, please leave a message). Believe it or not, even this can cause problems. Callers may be unsure if the voicemail box belongs to you; therefore, they don’t leave a message. Also, some may even be uncomfortable leaving information through a message in a nameless voice message box. As such, impersonalization can cause ambiguity, which again can hurt the effectiveness of your voice message system. This doesn’t mean you have to make an elaborate greeting if you don’t want to, just insert your voice and name so at least callers know they’re calling the right person.
In order to proceed, simply complete our simple billing form by clicking here and place your contact phone number in the “Voicemail Office Number” box and your script and name of talent in the comments box, so that we can setup an account to be billed for the professional recording(s). You will then receive a price, if over the 100 words, or be billed the one-time $49 (or $99 for on-hold announcements), and your voiceover files will be sent by email once completed.