How to Craft the Perfect Business Voicemail Greeting

As a business owner, how often do you find yourself leaving voicemail messages for clients or customers? Some businesses certainly leave them more than others, but they all have one thing in common — they set the tone for communication with your clients. If you leave a voicemail message that comes off as unprofessional, your client may not want to call you back. Knowing how to leave the perfect voicemail can boost your client communication skills.

AnswerHero™ is a professional call answering service that supports businesses with busy phone lines. We know what it takes to handle professional communications over the phone.

Voicemail Etiquette 101: What Every Business Owner Should Know

Effective voicemail strategies are key for client communication. If you don’t know what to say in a voicemail as a service provider, these general etiquette tips can help you get started.

Mastering the Art of Voicemail Greetings

The first 10 seconds or so of your voicemail message are dedicated to the greeting. Here, you’ll have the opportunity to set the tone for the message and keep the listener interested in what you have to say. Here are a few valuable tips:

• Embrace pleasantries and personalization: While you’re going into your call with a mission in mind, you want to remain pleasant and polite. Your greeting sets the tone for the rest of the message, and a listener might tune out if you sound aggressive or pushy. Start with a pleasant “hello” and refer to your client by name. 
• Identify yourself upfront: Right after your greeting, let your client know who you are and who your company is. It’s also best practice to mention your callback number upfront in case your message is cut off. This way, your client knows how to call you back. Plus, if they need to listen back to the message for your contact information, they can get it a few seconds in. 
• Lead with something valuable: Before you dive into the meat of your message, you want to draw your client in with something thought-provoking. Jumping into your sales pitch right away might encourage a person to delete the message. For example, a blood donation clinic might ask, “How many lives do you think you can save with a single donation?”

Crafting a Clear and Impactful Voicemail Message

After you’ve greeted your client, you need to make your point. This part of your message is essentially your call to action and will give your client clarity about the next steps. When handling this part of the message, follow these steps:

• Make your point clear: You’re calling for a reason, and it’s time to make that reason clear. Within a few sentences, your client should know why you’re calling and the next steps to meet this goal. For instance, a lawyer calling about a case might have discovered some new details and want to discuss them in person. The next step is calling to set an appointment. 
• Recap your contact information: After you’ve made your point clear, remind your client about your contact information, so they can easily get in touch with you. If you have an alternative action for them, like making an appointment, you can let them know how to do so online.
• Use a friendly goodbye: Time to wrap up your message! Close with a friendly goodbye and thank your client for their time. You might also add “Talk to you soon” at the end to remind your client to call back.

The Role of Voicemail in Client Retention

Voicemail messages are ideal for staying in touch with your clients and encouraging sales. While many of your clients might reach out to you first, they won’t always continue communication following that initial call. It’s up to you, as the service provider, to keep communication lines open and ensure they know what to do to move forward with your services.

With voicemail follow-ups, you establish trust with your client base by sending the message that you care about their experience. Leaving these messages can also increase customer loyalty as clients tend to patronize businesses where they feel cared for. If you’re dedicated to using voicemails as a client retention tool, keep the following tips in mind:

• Smile while you speak: You can hear a smile over the phone, and it helps send a positive message.
• Minimize background noise: Choosing to leave a voicemail when there’s construction noise outside your office or chatter in the hallway can be distracting and come off as less professional.
• Keep it short and sweet: It’s easy to stop paying attention to a voicemail message if it goes on for too long. A professional voicemail message should generally be less than one minute long, if possible.
• Communicate your plans: If you intend on calling your client back to check in, let them know when so they can be prepared.
• Use a consistent speed: Talking too fast or too slow can make it hard to understand the message and may feel unprofessional. Keep your pace consistent and easy to follow when leaving your message.
• Honor confidentiality: When a call relates to confidential information, like health or finances, make it a point to keep those details to yourself until you have a chance to talk to your client directly.

Crafting Messages That Resonate With Your Clients

Knowing that voicemail messages can impact client retention, it’s helpful to build a script you can lean on. You’ll likely have a few different scripts to align with different scenarios, but they can contain similar elements for brand consistency. For example, keeping your greeting and goodbye the same for every voicemail will make your messages more recognizable. 

The principles of scripting are just as helpful when answering the phone. While every caller will have their own unique needs, you can often separate the types of calls you receive into different categories. From there, you can decide which messages and phrases will be most valuable to your client based on their reason for calling. The scripting process is excellent for improving the impact of phone communication.

At AnswerHero™, scripts are a big part of what we do. Our call answering professionals act as an extension of your team to answer the phone, every time. As a first step, we’ll work together to create scripts for different types of calls, so our team can maintain consistency and communicate according to your goals and preferences.

Your Partner in Perfecting Business Communication

With AnswerHero™, you can maintain strong client communication with our team of call answering professionals. Our services include 24/7 call answering with 100% bilingual agents and no contracts or hidden fees. Check out our pricing plans and contact us to get started.