Your Smart 800 Voicemail Greeting - How To Sound Professional
Here's a common situation - You write a perfect script for your smart 800 voicemail greeting and practice it well, then when you record and listen back to it, it sounds funny somehow. You start to realize that there's a reason professional voice talent artists get paid so much! But you don't have to be a pro to sound like one.
Why is it so important? After all, don't you just need to tell them to leave a message? Actually, your smart 800 voicemail greeting is the first contact that many people will have with your company. First impressions really matter. A bad greeting can make your company sound bad and lose you countless customers and clients.
The Basics
First of all, there are some basic things your voicemail message needs to have. It needs to offer some kind of greeting. Otherwise, it sounds too abrupt. You should start off your greeting by introducing your company name and department, if that's relevant.Next, tell them that for whatever reason no one is available to take the call. You don't need to explain the situation in finite detail. In fact, it's best to leave it vague. Just tell them that everyone is busy. If you expect to be getting calls outside of office hours, you might want to remind them here of your office hours.
Next, invite them to leave a message and tell them that someone will call them back as soon as possible. If you can, give them an exact time when they can expect the call. For example, within 24 hours. If your customers may need you in the case of an emergency, give them someone to contact if they really need to right now.
Keep It Quick
Your outgoing message should be as short as possible while also conveying all of the needed information. The last thing you want to do is ramble. It should be under 45 seconds, but as short as possible without cutting out important information.One way to make it nice and short is to make sure you're only giving them the information they need to know. Leave out anything irrelevant, like the reason why no one's available to take the call.
The Professional Touch
How do the pros make it sound so pro? There are a few things they're trained to do. One is to wait for a couple of seconds before starting your outgoing smart 800 voicemail message. Don't launch right into your script. Give them a second to get ready.There's a balance to be struck by speaking slowly enough that they catch everything but not so slow you put them to sleep. Speak at a natural pace and make sure that your speaking is clear. If you can vary your intonation a little bit, this also helps. You don't want your message sounding robotic.
If your smart 800 voicemail greetings aren't getting the job done, enlist a member of your staff with the nicest voice. Hold auditions! You can also hire professional voice over talent if you're completely at a loss, and most smart 800 voicemail companies offer this service, but remember that it costs a fair bit of cash.