Even though the goal is to never let a caller go to voicemail, your company still needs a voicemail system that allows callers to leave a message if they can’t reach someone right away. An engaging and professional voicemail message is the first part of that system.
When you can't get to the phone, the right greeting will help maintain a positive relationship with customers, prospects, and anyone else who might call.
If you’re like many business owners, entrepreneurs, and other professionals, it’s probably been a while since you last updated that all-too-important greeting. But, this simple message is incredibly important — you want to encourage callers to leave a message (and give them confidence that their call will actually be returned).
Otherwise, you risk losing out on leads, prospective customers, and new opportunities.
If you’re ready to give your voicemail greeting a refresh, here’s everything you need to know.
To create an effective and engaging greeting, your voicemail should:
Every business should have its own unique voicemail greeting, but there are plenty of script templates that you can use to guide the process.
These voicemail message samples are great starting points for creating a new company greeting:
If reading the above scripts makes you dread the thought of recording a new voicemail greeting, don’t stress too much. When it comes to the company’s main voicemail greeting, you don’t necessarily have to record it yourself.
This can be a great task for a trustworthy assistant with phone acumen. Some companies employ receptionists, administrative assistants, and other staff directly. Since these employees support customer service and client engagement, they’re the ideal candidates for recording the company’s voicemail greeting.
And if you don’t directly employ administrative and customer support staff, this is one of the many tasks that are ideal for a virtual assistant or virtual receptionist.
In fact, these professionals can take the lead on all of your phone answering, administrative, and client support needs (at a very affordable cost, too).
However, let me share one last piece of advice before you rush to have a friendly voice record a new company voicemail greeting: Don’t forget that you should always be the voice of your own direct voicemail — that’s one of those things that shouldn’t be outsourced.