Professional Voicemail Greeting Tips and Scripts

Recording the right business voicemail greeting for yourself and your company can be vital to securing sales or in some cases making a great first impression. Your business voicemail can be the first contact that a caller will have with you, so creating something that sounds professional will only benefit your company.

Why Record a Business Voicemail Greeting?

Even with the greatest intentions, it’s not always possible to answer calls 100% of the time. For salespeople or installers who travel a lot and are always on the move, it’s not always practical to answer the phone on every occasion. Taking calls while in the middle of plumbing a bathroom or rewiring an office isn’t always best received. Even when working in an office-based role, you might aim to answer every call you receive, but busy meeting schedules can leave little time to pick up calls as they happen.

These types of situations are exactly where a professional voicemail greeting can not only reflect the personality of your organisation, but also offer the caller additional confidence in your company. With Voicemail to Email features, you’ll find it easy to keep track of all your messages in one location, making call-backs a pain-free process.

What Makes a Good Voicemail Greeting For Business?

A good business voicemail greeting should be both concise and leave the caller with a good impression of your business. This is a great chance to reflect the personality of your organisation or department, while also considering the situation in which the caller will be contacting you. So, if operating in a corporate industry such as insurance or law, it may not be the best idea to record a funny voicemail greeting for your clients. Be mindful of the result you want to receive from your voicemail too.

What Should the Best Business Voicemail Greetings Include?

To ensure your voicemail hits the right spot with your callers, you should try and centre the greeting around some of the elements below.

 

Business Voicemail Greeting Script Examples

The finer points of what to say in a business voicemail greeting are of course up to you, but we’ve put together a small selection of sample voicemail scripts to get you started and help improve your call to message ratios.

Business Voicemail Greeting Example:

"Hi, you’ve reached [Your Name] at [Business Name]. I’m not available to take your call right now. Please leave your name, number and a brief message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible."

Company Voicemail Greeting Example:

"Thanks for calling [Business Name]. We are unable to take your call right now, but please leave your name, number and reason for calling and one of the team will respond to your enquiry within [Timescale]. Thank you."

Company High Call Volume Voicemail Greeting Example:

"Thank you for calling [Business Name]. All our lines are busy right now, but we really value your call, so please leave your name, number and reason for calling and we will be in touch within [Timescale]. Thank you."

Out of Office Hours (OOH) Voicemail Greeting Example:

"Thank you for calling [Business Name]. We are currently closed, but please leave your name, number and reason for calling and one of the team will respond to your enquiry within [Timescale]. To speak to someone directly please call during business hours which are [Business Opening Days and Times]."

Out of Office Voicemail Greeting Example:

"Hi, you’ve reached [Your Name] at [Business Name]. Thanks for your call. I’m currently out of the office right now, but please leave your name, number and reason for calling and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. For urgent enquiries, please contact [Alternative Contact] on [Alternative Contact Number]."

Vacation Voicemail Greeting Example:

"Hi, you have reached [Your Name] at [Business Name]. I am currently on annual leave until [Date]. Please leave your contact information and a brief message and I will respond upon my return. For urgent enquiries please email [Emergency Email Address]. Thank you."

Once you've fine-tuned your voicemail greetings, either record them or use your phone system’s text-to-speech functionality and add them to your company, departmental or personal voicemail mailboxes.

Tools To Boost Your Business Voicemail

Voicemail to Email

If you find yourself consistently missing calls due to busy schedules for example, enabling Voicemail to Email functionality will ensure all voicemail messages are received to one designated inbox. Turning these features on will make it easier to stay on top of voicemails and monitor all messages in one location.

Audio Recordings and Text to Speech

Our phone system allows you to record greetings and add them to your business audio library by simply dialing a shortcode on your phone. If you're unsure about the sound of your voice when it's recorded, or are just unable to secure a professional voice greeting in time, try using one of your pre-prepared scripts with the Text-to-Speech feature to generate audio for your voicemail greeting in minutes.

Testing, Testing 1-2-3

With the recording of greetings being such an easy process, testing different approaches and tones is well within your grasp. Measure the results and responses received from your recorded greetings and see which works best. While there will be a variety of factors that will affect whether a caller leaves a message, having control over your greetings will at least let you optimise one aspect of your company-to-customer contact.

IVR and Call Queuing Strategies

Smaller businesses can sometimes find it harder than larger enterprises to answer calls, due to having fewer members of staff. In these cases, it can be useful to consider complementing your business voicemail mailboxes with IVR call menus and call queuing. These features let you super-charge your inbound call flow by employing call strategies such as skills based routing or sequential call routing.

These scripts are intended as starter points. You know your business better than anyone, so tailor language and tone of your greetings to your company and the relevant circumstances. Ensure your voicemail greetings are balanced, contain all the right elements and leave your callers wanting to interact with you, or at least leave them confident of calling you again next time!