What information should you provide in your voice mail greeting?

Nowadays everyone knows how voice mail works, so saying things like "after the beep" or "you've reached my voice mail" (really?) is completely unecessary. The shorter the better, but be friendly and clear, minimize the caller's listening time by providing only the necessary information and options, and eliminate any extraneous information:

"Hi, this is Michael. I'll be traveling through March 30th and unable to return calls. If you need help right away, push zero, or leave a message and I'll call you back as soon as I can."

There are some differences between small companies and big ones, and between different types of work (obviously a tech support person needs to be a little more specific). But really, most of us need no more than that. It is just a message taking device. As with everything else these days, people have short attention spans, and there is rarely much value to anything you say beyond the fact that you're out, when you'll be back, and what options are available for message or bounce-out.

I am not a fan of the ever-changing, overly-detailed, over-chatty message:

"Hi, you've reached the voice mailbox of Bob Smith. It's Friday, March eleventh, and I will be out of the office all day at an offsite planning meeting. I will only be checking voice mail periodically throughout the day and may not be able to return your call. If you need immediate assistance, please call my admin Sue at extension 41567. Otherwise, please leave a detailed message for me after the tone, including your name, number and reason for your call. I will try to return your call within the next 2 business days. Have an excellent day!"

That stuff drives me nuts. I just want to either reach Bob, leave a message, or speak to someone else. Period. None of the other info is useful to me, and if it were, I could get it from the assistant.

As I always stress, I recognize that every situation is different, but (within the needs and constraints of your job and your company), K.I.S.S. will never steer you wrong.

Craig

Enterprises have an abundance of rules out of necessity. Scale forces them to expect a certain conformity or else utter chaos results.

From a sales and marketing perspective however, your voice mail greeting is another opportunity to share your brand. Along with key information, it's a chance to use your tone, cadence and perhaps even a little style to reinforce the image you hope to convey and to differentiate yourself.

Hi Craig -

The first thing your voice mail greeting should have is...YOUR voice. When I hear an automated default message, I immediately think that the person doesn't care about how they appear. And I've actually heard voice mail greetings that have a woman (secretary) recording the greeting for the man. That just seems wrong (to me).

Another thing a voice mail greeting should have is a smile. One of my clients has the best voice mail greeting - when you hear it, it actually sounds like he's HAPPY you called.

Other than these two - the rest depends on your type of business.

- If you travel and are in and out of the office often, then it might make sense for you to leave a message about if you are in or out and how to contact you.

- If you prefer texting - you can actually have that in your greeting - or whatever preferences you have for people getting in touch with you.

I can come up with more - but I'm curious what other wonderful tips people will add here.

At least 50% of callers will instantly hang up when they discover that you are not there. The remaining 50% only want reassurance that they called the right number, so you want a brief greeting (in your own voice) inviting them to leave a message. People are too busy to sit around listening to long voicemail or IVR messages, so don't torture them with long essays about your availability and whereabouts.

1. your voice - not the secretary or a default greeting. Bit of warmth and welcome is good!
2. Brief when they cane expect to hear back from you
3. Escalation or backup party ("to be transferred to support, press 3 now or call xxx")
4. If you have one of the dreaded "extended absence greetings" which prevents people from dialing another extension until they've heard your whole spiel - plz shorten it or turn off the "must listen to whole thing first" part.

Keep it upbeat and pithy. Depending on what type of business you're in, you may, on your office line, offer up your cell phone for emergencies.
Agree that your own voice on a message is a great customer-oriented touch too!

In addition to the useful comments already offered, I'd add "keep the greeting message in proportion to the length of the message to be left".

How?

From analysing the duration of several voicemail systems we ran we determined that average (mean) length of a voicemail message was 22 seconds. The duration most frequently seen (mode) varies between systems but hovers around 10 seconds. Obviously your case will vary (I am referring to messages in British English mostly from UK-based callers) but using these numbers I keep my greeting around 3 seconds and never more than 5 - it feels a good balance relative to the time my callers want to speak for.

Your name, your company name, the day, the date, your whereabouts and how quickly your are likely to respond.

How much information? As little as possible; callers now understand that they are supposed to "leave a detailed message at the tone", so that's superfluous. The three key ingredients are:
- your name (for confirmation)
- when you will return the call.
- an alternative for urgent matters (cell or other person)

For the "when you will return the call" info, a vague "within a few hours" isn't very helpful as it sounds generic and doesn't imply that you access the mail system frequently. Much better is to change the greeting daily and incorporate the day into the return time. E.g., "This is Don Van Doren. I'll return calls by 4:00 today, Friday. Or, call Jill at 973-229-7185."

Of course, in our consulting work, we are finding that voicemail is going away as presence-based IM becomes more widespread. In the future, look for that to be even more common, as intercompany federation becomes a reality.

Don

How much information? As little as possible; callers now understand that they are supposed to "leave a detailed message at the tone", so that's superfluous. The three key ingredients are:
- your name (for confirmation)
- when you will return the call.
- an alternative for urgent matters (cell or other person)

For the "when you will return the call" info, a vague "within a few hours" isn't very helpful as it sounds generic and doesn't imply that you access the mail system frequently. Much better is to change the greeting daily and incorporate the day into the return time. E.g., "This is Don Van Doren. I'll return calls by 4:00 today, Friday. Or, call Jill at 973-229-7185."

Of course, in our consulting work, we are finding that voicemail is going away as presence-based IM becomes more widespread. In the future, look for that to be even more common, as intercompany federation becomes a reality.

Don

1. your voice - not the secretary or a default greeting. Bit of warmth and welcome is good!
2. Brief when they cane expect to hear back from you
3. Escalation or backup party ("to be transferred to support, press 3 now or call xxx")
4. If you have one of the dreaded "extended absence greetings" which prevents people from dialing another extension until they've heard your whole spiel - plz shorten it or turn off the "must listen to whole thing first" part.

As a productivity expert and solopreneur, most of the time, as briefly as possible, I try to include - who I am, what I do, the date and they timeframe they can expect a return call, my website.

"This is Susan, you have reached Organization Plus! I help small business owners make work simple, fast and easy. It's Friday March 11. I am working with clients today and will return your call on Monday. In the mean time, you can find information on line at LiberateTime.com."

The goal is to set expectations I can meet. I change it daily

That said, when the situation dictates, I will leave a simpler message without the specifics of date when I know I will not have time to change the message daily.

I practice smiling and sing just a bit to open and clear my throat before making the recording it. It give me a reason to smile and be warm and gracious first thing every day which is not a bad way to start the day!

I have to respectfully disagree with the notion that voice mail is (or should be used as) a marketing tool, though perhaps there are some very rare and specific exceptions depending on the business.

Normally I am the first to say that everything--from a business card to an e-mail signature--is a marketing opportunity of one kind or another. But unlike almost any other form of contact, when someone is waiting to leave you a phone message they are spending their time "involuntarily." And I think in this day and age, most people want to get from A to B (especially on the phone) as quickly as possible. So be respectful of their time and get them from the ring to the beep as soon as you can.

Since I am in IT and don't normally get calls from people who might be a "marketing opportunity" and, frankly, I don't have time to record a new message every day, I take the K.I.S.S.approach.

- Name
- A promise to return the call as soon as I can
- "If it is an emergency, . . . " with a list of potential contacts and then my _company_ cell phone number.

I figure that a) either they deliberately called _me_, in which case they know who they are dealing with or it is a wrong number and they'll hang up anyway, b) if they really need help _now_, then they don't need me to be long winded, and c) if they really need to talk to _me_ they can call my cell.

As a member of the marketing world, I highly recommend that if you can add a website URL to a voicemail greeting, your marketing department will thank you for doing so. I have often added "please check out our website at www....com to learn about upcoming events" or "check out our latest news at www....com." You would be surprised to learn that customers or prospective customers don't always know your URL - and if you can easily direct them to your site, they will be appreciative.

I think that is depends on teh industry and wahtyou can reasonably manage, making sure that the most recent information is presented and making sure you are clear about what information you require them to leave.

Ask Your Clients what would suit them and adjust accordingly.