Elements of a Good Voice Mail Greeting
When you enter a room, you have less than 30 seconds to give the right impression. You leave your audience with the rest of the mystery to baffle them about who you really are, but initially, you are judged by what first hits the senses – the way you dress. In the same way, you don’t have much time to prove your business’ worth. You only have seconds worth of time to present a good impression when someone gives your office a call. Start with your voice mail greeting, and do it right the first time.
They come in all forms, and you‘ve probably heard them all
- The short and sweet: “Hi. I’m out. Please leave a message.”
- The dead end routing: “….press 1 for sales (*1*)…press 4 if you know the local
number….(background music)…sorry please try again.”
- The cobwebbed greeting: “…you may get in touch with my pager number 18882934…”
And you’ve probably encountered worse. The greetings were not powerful enough to make you leave a message. It’s either you hang up or turn to their competitor who can readily take the call.
Like bread and butter, your voice mail system and its greeting is a tandem. It can only be as good if the filling has the right mix and flavor. Giving Your Voice Mail Greeting The Right Taste. One of the great advantages of having an online voice mail system is how it can dress up your business for a good impression when someone calls in. Make it professional and strong enough to make people stay on the line or leave a message. The following tips are a compilation that’s been narrowed down to the more relevant suggestions:
- The short and sweet, but complete. There is nothing more annoying than listening to a robot endlessly laying down the options from hitting numbers 1 to 10 – only to find out no one can take the call. Humans only have minutes of focused attention span, and callers have less than half of that small time. Your customers aren’t really some of the most patient people you’ll meet. When they dial your number, they could only care about getting their request and services done. Try keeping it down in a maximum of 15 seconds. You can be direct in saying how your callers can reach you or a certain person who can immediately attend to their call.
- Make it user-friendly. Don’t add too many options and numbered instructions that will cause them to leave. Having someone ready to take the call after one or two menu options is better that making your customers hop from one option to another.
- Give a positive vibe. It’s not advised to say something like “the operators are busy now…” or “we have placed you on a queue…”. Rather than placing your callers in a dead-end mode, let your callers know that the operators are aware of their call. Make it known that shortly, their call will be attended to. Aim for keeping them on hold. Otherwise, let them leave the message shortly after.
- Sound like you mean it, and you must. Let your callers know that you will get back to them after leaving their message. You don’t just have to make this part of the mantra. Do make that return call upon receiving your caller’s message.
- Update, update, update! Do yourself a favor, and update your voice mail greeting on a regular basis. Your callers need assurance that the person they want to talk to will get their message. If your voice mail greeting sounds like you’ve had it for years, you’re most likely to lose that sale. The caller will find no point in leaving his message when he thinks no one will receive it.
Having a good voice mail greeting is one step in establishing rapport with your customers. It could either make or break that call, so it’s best to prepare a really good greeting for introduction. It’s been reiterated in your business bibles that it’s essential to always do it right the first time. After all, first impressions do last.
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