You can’t answer your telephone 24 hours a day, but business doesn’t stop. It’s inevitable you will miss some calls, which will be sent to your voice mail. According to AT&T, around 75% of business calls are not completed on the first attempt.

This statistic highlights the importance of voice mail, and the need for all business people to have an informative, professional voice mail greeting. The goal is a lively, engaging voice mail greeting that tells the caller everything he or she needs to know to leave an actionable message.

Actionable is the key word here. Many voice mail messages are too generic and don’t prompt the caller to provide necessary information. A thoughtful, professional voice mail greeting will provide the caller with the key information they need to know to leave a useful message enabling both an action by you and a reply from you.

CREATING A PROFESSIONAL VOICE MAIL GREETING

A top-quality professional voice mail greeting takes thought and effort. You should make a list of the information you want callers to include in their messages before you even try to create a voice mail greeting. Your list should probably at least include:

• Name
• Subject of the call
• Affiliation
• Contact number or other best way to be reached

Voice mail greetings are also an important part of your brand audio messaging. What kind of impression do you want to make with the voice of the person narrating your voice mail greeting? Young? Upbeat? Mature? How about gender?

Other questions also have to be answered: How long should the greeting be? Do you want to include a brief bit of marketing content or just stick to the basics?