3. "Hey, this is [your name]. If you're calling for [X reason], please [contact so-and-so] or [go to our website, send me an email]. For all other inquiries, leave your name and a brief message and I'll call you back within [one, two, three] business day[s].
Before you read this, stop and listen to the voicemail greetings for your cellphone and business line. Seriously, I’ll wait.
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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.”
The phone you use to record your greeting – and your surrounding – can turn your carefully scripted greeting into an unprofessional mess. Background noise is terribly distracting, so choose a quiet room or parked car to make your call. Landlines, or a “wi-fi enabled” cellphone call, can provide much better connection quality than a standard cellphone. If you must use a cell phone, be sure to use a high-quality headset for the best clarity.
Finally get an answering machine. Now how does this thing work? Hmmm. Press record button, I did that, and the light should be on. I wonder why it’s not working right. Hmmmm, I wonder what this button does……
Editor’s Note: The article is part of the blog series Grow Your Business brought to you by the marketing team at UniTel Voice, the virtual phone system priced and designed for startups and small business owners.
2.) Welcome to John Doe. Unfortunately you are calling us outside our normal business hours. Personally you can reach us Monday to Friday from 8am 6pm and Saturday from 9am to 4pm. Please leave a message, or send us an email to: [email protected]. We will contact you as soon as possible - Thank you.
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.
For more accessibility options, see Learn how to navigate Skype for Business using accessible features.
Different businesses may require different types of greetings. This is the ultimate list that can work for a wide array of company messages.
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.
The answer is to ensure a customer-friendly experience for the caller – even if the call ends up in voicemail.
This post will start with a few quick rules-of-thumb to help you create a professional and effective call menu. If you don’t have time for my rhetoric, then please feel free to skip down to the good stuff. When labeling menu options, be concise and get to the point. Like a voicemail greeting, a good menu prompt immediately tells the caller where this option will send them and quickly states
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.
Voicemail is a voice message that a caller leaves when the person called is absent or is busy with another conversation.
Hi. You've reached Teflon Carpeting. Our business is located at 103 Maple Pine Street, Atlanta, Georgia....
A good voicemail greeting is short and professional, lets people know that you’ll get back to them, and invites callers to continue engaging with a call-to-action. You should also show your personality if you’re in an industry or role that allows that. If your industry is more conservative, however, you’ll want to keep humor and personal touches to a minimum. A greeting Your name Your company A simple explanation for missing the call (e.g. you’re away from the phone or are on holiday) A rough estimate of when you’ll get back to the person An alternative person to reach out to (if you’re out of office) An alternative mode of communication (if you prefer email or text) A call-to-action such as “Leave a message” or “Send me an email at [email protected]”