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Your voicemail greeting should keep customers and clients informed and create or reinforce a positive impression of your organization when you or your employees can’t come to the phone. With such an important role, your voicemail greeting needs to be done right. Keep these tips in mind when crafting your voicemail message.
Include Key Information
A voicemail greeting must be informative. It should tell your callers that they’ve reached your business and (if you have several different phone lines) your department or desk.
Your voicemail should also tell callers you can’t come to the phone before inviting them to leave a message. Should they leave their message after the beep? Will they have a certain amount of time to record it? Some of this information may seem straightforward, but you shouldn’t leave anything to chance.
Some callers don’t like leaving messages. Your voicemail message can tell these callers how to get in touch with you in other ways. Including your office hours is a great idea as it tells callers when you’re likely to take calls. Even callers who will leave messages appreciate this information, as they’ll know when you’ll probably call them back. You may also like to leave your email address or your cell phone number for emergencies.
Avoid providing too much information, however. Your caller’s attention will wane, so restrict your message to 20 to 25 seconds.
Get the Tone Right
Your voicemail greeting should reflect your business, so it’s important you get the tone right. Callers have certain expectations when they call companies, and if they’re greeted by a voicemail message that doesn’t match the company, they can be turned off. Get your voicemail greeting’s tone wrong and you risk offending your customers or clients or losing them altogether.
A humorous voicemail message can set a business apart from its competitors. You might consider a funny voicemail greeting if you have a party supplies store or a youthful design firm. However, a voicemail message with a lighthearted tone will seem insensitive for a legal practice, accountancy firm, or funeral parlor. The people calling these businesses may be suffering great personal or professional hardships and are likely to feel that your jokes are poorly timed. A voicemail message with a more serious or somber tone is more appropriate for these kinds of companies.
Keep It Professional
Whether your voicemail greeting is lighthearted or more serious, it should always be professional. Humorous content is OK, but your jokes should always be in good taste. Beware of toilet humor and never make fun of other people or groups. Speak clearly and with confidence. Avoid filler words. Writing your voicemail message down before recording it can help you stay on track. Just make sure you keep personality in your voice rather than sounding robotic, as so many people reading scripts do. You may need to record your voicemail greeting several times to get it right. Listen to each take critically and identify areas for improvement until it sounds perfect.
The best business voicemail greetings are informative and professional, with tones that accurately reflect their organizations. Keep the characteristics of great voicemail greetings in mind when creating your own, and you’re sure to get it right.