Voice Mail
- Tips to Guarantee a Positive Impression

Voice mail is an argument that has people on both sides of the fence. Some people love it - others hate it! Remember back a few years ago when a major Canadian city had all voice mail removed?

The arguments against voice mail will be that the personal touch is removed, customer service should be delivered by a person, no one ever returns voice mail and so on. Those people on the positive side of voice mail will tell you that it helps them manage their time better, helps them service the client better and is a positive addition to the tools available to the employee today. I personally can argue on both sides of the equation and in the end, it doesn't really matter. Voice mail is here to stay! If that is the case, lets use it to our advantage:

Recording a message

Limit your personal greeting to 30 seconds; make sure your voice is businesslike but cheerful. Try to not to make your message too long. You would be surprised at how long 30 seconds is - you can say quite a bit in that time. If you deliver your greeting in multiple languages (lets use English and French) after the finish of the first language delivery, tell your client that they can press the pound key (#) to skip the rest of the message. This way they don't need to listen to the message again in another language. For multiple language greetings, be sure that they are as short as possible.

Keep your clients in mind when recording your greeting. Specifically where language is concerned. For instance, I live in Ottawa, which is a completely bilingual city (French & English). Most people either speak both languages or understand both languages. It is quite common to call an office and hear a bilingual greeting. Unfortunately, if their client base is not entirely in the Ottawa area - it is possible that their client does not understand the entire message. Let me give you an example - Hello, you have reached the office of Rhonda Scharf (Finniss). Je suis pas ici maintenant - mais je vais retourner a trois heures. Please leave your name and number at the message. If I am calling from Chicago - I may not have understood the middle section of your message and potentially hang up. At the very least, it isn't good customer service. It is also an example of what not to do on voice mail.

Keep your personal greeting current. I am a big believer that everyone should change their voice mail greeting daily. It shows to your customer that you at least check it once a day! It gives me the confidence that you are attentive to the telephone area of your job. If I have that confidence, I won't call you 3 times that day - just once (which saves you time, doesn't it?). Now please - don't forget to update it! There is nothing worse than calling and hearing a date that is 3 weeks old! This is definitely not a good impression of you and your company!

List no more than three or four options. One of which should always be to reach a live operator. Make sure that you list the option before the number they should press as well. For instance: If you wish to speak to a live representative, press "0". That sounds much better than: Press "0" to speak to a live operator. I tend not to listen closely to the options until I hear the one I want. If the number I should press was mentioned before the option, I may not have heard what it was. I know this sounds silly, but the next time you are given options, pay attention to how closely you listen to the numbers.

"This is Rhonda Scharf (Finniss) of the Training Department of ON THE RIGHT TRACK - Training & Consulting. Today is Monday May 14th, and I will be out of the office in the morning, and able to return calls after 1pm this afternoon. In the meantime, please leave your name and telephone number including area code, your organization, a complete message and the best time to return your call. I'll be sure to call you back before the end of the business day."

This message took 20 seconds for me to leave. Make sure that you manage your voice mail by not only recording a good message - but checking them regularly as well!

Voice Mail Reminders

When leaving the office (even just for lunch), forward calls to your voice mail system. Don't have the phone ring three times if you aren't there - you are wasting your customer's time!

When away from the office for several days or more, leave the name and number of someone who can help in your absence. If people jump to the end of your message without evening listening to it - have someone else record your greeting when you are away from the office. This will avoid you returning to the office with your message box full!

Don't hide behind voice mail - return messages promptly