The Need Of Voicemail For Your Business
There are certain principles we have to follow when running a business. We want to bring our A-game, and everything that represents us should be impactful and impressive. Yes, including that voicemail you either set on automatic response or haven’t changed over the years.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and imagine calling someone you’re willing to collaborate with but you end up getting a robotic response that says leave a message. You will not only be a little disappointed but also feel like you don’t really matter to them. This is exactly why your voicemail should have a personality. Let’s explain!
What makes a voicemail the best for business?
Not all voicemails are created equal. Some are too long, too vague, or too boring. If you want to make a good impression on your callers and encourage them to leave a message, you need to set up the best voicemail possible.
Voicemail is important because it just might be your business’s first impression on customers. Get a hold of this, and your client will already be 25% ready to buy from you!
The best voicemail for businesses is one that is professional, clear, and courteous. Follow these steps to create your own fantastic voicemail.
1. Ditch the default greeting, Be Original
An original voicemail greeting is personal, unique, and purposeful. It shows your personality, brand, and value. It makes your callers feel cared for and interested. It’s also a good way to set you apart from your competitors and make your customer experience memorable.
On the other hand, A default voicemail greeting is boring, impersonal, and generic. It doesn’t show who you are or what you do. It doesn’t make your callers feel welcome or valued. It makes you seem indifferent which does not make any valuable progress in making clients.
2. Avoid Filler and fluff Words.
Get straight to the point, make your greeting shorter and be more respectful of your callers’ time. There’s no need to be extra positive either. Keep it concise because no one wants to listen to all the fluff words from a machine. Your voicemail can adhere to our principles, and it’ll be the best one”
Engage, Educate, Excite!
3. Tonality: Stay in tune with your brand.
You have to make your voicemail sound genuine. Set up a tone that is firm and powerful, give attention to the person, and make them feel important. Your voicemail is just like every other aspect of the business. So it should be in line with your brand tone.
Are you a company that needs to be highly professional or has a cool and casual style? Make sure you’re not overly positive or monotonous on voicemail, keep it natural and choose a balanced tone.
4. Give them an alternate action
This part adds value to your voicemail. Simply saying, ‘We’ll get back to you’ or ‘Call again later’ makes listening to the voicemail meaningless and wastes time. It’s also frustrating when you don’t give the caller any other way to reach you.
Give them a clear choice: You can leave a text and I’ll get right back to you. OR send me an email, and if it is urgent speak to my colleague, they’ll sort it out. Whatever works best for you, select a few good actions that callers can take when they can’t get you on a call.
5. Be quick.
Our attention span is getting very low thanks to all those short videos. We need to wrap things up within 8-10 secs. All the best voicemail elements can be easily set within this time span.
Voicemail plays a major role in how your customers perceive you when you cannot directly be in touch with them. This is where you have to make that your voicemail is projecting the same energy you would’ve if you had picked up the call. But there’s more here. You need to pay more attention so that the receiver does not feel ignored or dismissed.
6. Optional Things
Depending on your business nature, there must be some essential things that you will want to incorporate in your voicemail. As an example, a voicemail should have:
– Greeting that identifies yourself and your company.
– Reason why you are unavailable or busy.
– Request for the caller to leave their name, number, and message.
– Indication of when you will return the call or how they can reach you otherwise.
– Thank you and a closing remark.
Voicemail examples to get you going.
Have a look at some generic voicemail greetings that you can use for most situations. Just to give you an idea, you can tune it according to your style.
The general voicemail:
You’ve reached [Me]. Your call is very important to me, please leave a message or send a text with how I can best respond, and that’s exactly what I’ll do.
The ‘Out of Office Voicemail ’
This is a voicemail greeting that you can use when you are out of the office for a specific period of time.
Hi, this is [name]. I’m out of the office until [date/time]. If this is an urgent matter, please contact [alternative person] at [phone number] or [email address]. Otherwise, please leave your name, number, and message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
‘When you’re busy’ Voicemail
This is a voicemail greeting that you can use when you are busy with another call or task.
Hi, this is [name] at [company]. I’m currently on another call or away from my desk. Please leave your name, number, and message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you for your call.
Give Your Business An Edge.
It’s the little things that when add up create value. Just like voicemails, there are a lot of things in business that if done brilliantly, make a difference. Give your voicemails another try and see the difference.
