Get your Voicemail Greeting Right
Among all the challenges of managing and marketing a business, your business voicemail greeting is one of those things that is often rushed or falls under the shadow of larger or more pressing challenges. Voicemail is not only a valuable customer resource, but is often the first impression of your quality — you wouldn’t print an unfinished logo or wear your gym clothes to a pitch — likewise, you shouldn’t overlook your voicemail greeting.
Not only should your voicemail greeting be on-brand by setting the right tone, but the usability and helpfulness of your recorded first impression should convert the customer instead of deterring or frustrating them.
It’s normal to dislike the sound of your own voice, and you might not have anyone on staff whose voice is the right fit for your brand. If you feel uncomfortable recording the voicemail greeting yourself, consider hiring professional talent — it’s affordable, enhances your image and you can be sure your customers are getting the clear, concise information that defines your customer service.
Should the voicemail greeting be energized and youthful? Or seasoned and reassuring? Would an accent enhance the effect? And beyond the tone, what is the right thing to say?
AccessDirect teamed up with Voices.com to provide advice and resources on how to obtain the professional voice services that best represent your business. By using real small business examples, we offer tips for creating the best business voicemail greetings that project just the image you have in mind. We’ll share some effective sample voicemail greetings and help determine how many greetings you may want to have in play (sometimes 5 to 6 to follow your main greeting as customers select deeper prompts.)
Once you experience these professional voicemail greeting examples you’ll see how they impress your callers, and you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it sooner. It’s affordable, enhances your image and you can be sure your customers are getting the clear, concise information that defines your customer service.
Examples of a Professional Voicemail Greeting
“Sometimes your IVR greeting is the first thing a new customer will hear. The more professional it sounds, the more likely they are to trust your quality.”
– Bev Standing, Voice Talent
Main Greeting
“The voice style you select should complement your business. A law firm’s answering machine will have a very different tone than a spa or hair salon. A professional voice talent knows how to make these adjustments to best suit your business.”
– Erin Bateman, Voice Talent
Main Greeting – Erin
Hold/Transfer – Erin
“A professional knows how to pace the recording so your potential client can navigate through the voicemail system easily. A professional voice talent can also help your small business deliver information in your voicemail greeting in the most clear and concise way possible. Avoid writing greeting scripts that are too long or wordy. Make your points quickly and early on in the greeting.”
– Clark Sarullo, Voice Talent
On Hold – Clark
Information Greeting – Clark
“Use the element of surprise or variety to make your IVR unforgettable so your company stands out from the rest! TRCA’s clients will be talking about their IVR system to everyone for a long time!”
– Kevin Barbare, Voice Talent
“TRCA felt that the use of a celebrity voice would be good for the recognition as well as the comfort factor for their clients. The fact that the voice is well known and recognizable is what we were going for to provide the feeling of comfort and recognition.”
– TRCA, Client
Main Greeting
“Years ago, when I recorded thousands of prompts for Nuance, I was told they’d auditioned many talents until they found the friendliest voice. That was me! I felt proud. My mama taught me to use my “polite voice” bilingually….little did I know it would come in handy in my career at a later time!
For me, what’s fun about doing telephony work is that I get to be the voice of the company, welcome their clients and make them feel heard, safe and appreciated. I love opening doors for anyone I care about, and it’s my honor to put that attitude to work for the clients who honor me by choosing my brand of friendly voice.”
– Rosi Amador, Voice Talent
Main Greeting
Spanish Greeting
“Your IVR greeting is often your clients’ first impression of your company’s customer service mission. Ensure that the voice they hear not only reflects your brand, but is also welcoming and engaging. It’s also important that menu options are easy to navigate so that your client can reach the right representative or service option for them with the minimal amount of steps.”
– Dani States, Voice Talent
Main Greeting
“Pick a talent that matches your brand. Someone who sounds like they are educated in what exactly it is the brand does. Also, look for someone who is relatable. Not only do they know the brand, they would use the product that brand is selling. That makes the whole message much more engaging.
I find that clients are almost always looking for a more relaxed, natural tone – even when it’s corporate. I have re-worked many systems that the client felt were too stiff, cold or non-conversational. The trick is… you still have to maintain a professional sound.
I’ve also worked on systems where they wanted a super hip friendly tone with a sense of humor – I was asked to really bring my personality to it. Those are fun, but only come along once in a while. Most often, the client is looking for a friendly, approachable and welcoming sound that’s also professional, clear and informative.
Then there are the shades of color that make it special: if it’s for a spa/resort for instance, the sound might be a bit slicker/smoother and/or more inviting or relaxing. If it’s for something medical, there should probably be reassurance and a bit more authority in the vocal tone.
These are things to consider when deciding what’s appropriate. But most often, honestly, these nuances don’t come as direction from the client but rather creative decisions from me, based on the copy and the business I’m representing.”
– Rachel Fulginiti, Voice Talent
Main Greeting
“Consider the personality of your business and how you want your callers to feel when they call your office. The voice you select is the first impression to your callers, and can set the tone for your business interactions. When you hire a voice talent, you have the flexibility to select a male or female, choose an accent, and specify a trait or attribute in the voice to match your business personality.”
– Susan Windham, Client
“If you’ve got an IVR system that includes multiple prompts, create a naming convention for each file that the talent can follow. That will help both of you ensure that all of the prompts have been produced according to the script and may make it easier for your phone system administrator to load them into the system. And, always include file specs. This prevents rework on the part of your talent – and frustration on your part for getting files that you can’t use on the first go ‘round.”
– Dani States, Voice Talent
Holiday Greeting
On-Hours Greeting
Small Businesses Sound Bigger with a Professionally Recorded Voicemail Greeting
As a small business owner, even if you’re just starting out, you don’t want to sound “small” or unprofessional. Even if you’re currently wearing all the hats as a “solopreneur,” you can still project the image of multiple departments and caller options that make your business seem much larger.
At AccessDirect, we always offer to professionally record our customer’s hosted phone system voicemail greeting. Interestingly, our customers often value the “sound” and the image it gives their company as much as they do the features of our Virtual PBX system.
Most small business owners don’t want to use their own voice and aren’t quite sure what to say. We enjoy helping our customers write a business voicemail script and record their outgoing business IVR greeting as part of our service. We know the importance of a good first impression and what better way to do that than when a customer calls your company for the first time!
A Professional Voicemail Greeting Takes your Business to the Next Level
Now that you’ve had an opportunity to hear a variety of great business voicemail greeting samples, you know that help is available to get just the sound and image you’re looking for. Whether you use your own voice, your staff or hire professional talent, these tips and examples should guide you to a successful business voicemail script with clear, concise and engaging call options.
Regardless of your industry, you’ll be able to craft the best business voicemail greeting with confidence that you’re covering all the bases — and you might even have a little fun doing it.
About AccessDirect
Since 1997, AccessDirect has been providing affordable Virtual PBX phone systems from our offices in Kansas City to businesses of all sizes across the country. Exceptional live customer service and cloud-hosted phone systems with multiple extensions, call routing, voicemail, fax and a professional business voicemail greeting allow you to connect with your customers, no matter where you are. AccessDirect helps small businesses meet the communications needs of an increasingly virtual world.
Media Contact John Kinskey, President 913-599-6500 ext. 14 jkinskey@messagingservice.com
About Voices.com
Voices.com is the industry leading website that connects businesses with professional voice talents. Clients hiring voice over talent rely upon Voices.com to simplify their hiring experience. They use Voices.com to search, review, and identify the people they want to work with and ultimately hire to record their voice-over. Voices.com gives them the tools to narrow their searches, find the best talent, post jobs for voice talent and also acquire a voice over that they are proud to associate their company or organization with. Voices.com has a global network of 125,000 voices representing more than 100 languages.
Media Contact Trisha Beausaert Public Relations Manager 519-858-5660 ext. 536 trisha.beausaert@voices.com
For more information about how you can utilize the professional voicemail greeting services from AccessDirect give us a call at 877-599-6500 or contact us today!
