Voicemail etiquette, I know its happen to us all, we go to make a call & reach a person voicemail, what is annoying is a message that states so & so will be out of the out until December 28, and its January 15, or you wait patiently for the message to end and yes you need to speak to a Representative/assistant or preferably to a live breathing person--- leave three messages much to your chagrin with no return calls. Or the flip side you are left a message and you need to replay the message several times before you can understand the telephone number that was left, or the directions. or the name of the person that called.
I know that we all have been to voicemail ****, which was not the intention of the designer, Gordon Matthews in the 1970's. There is good news, to stay of out this murky quagmire there are some easy steps to take to recifty this situation.
Voicemail etiquette:
- Read the book that came with your voicemail system, did not get one or lost the one that you had-- Google your system. It will save you time --lets say that you want to fast forward a message or listen to message five but not all the messages before.
- Identify your organization in your out going message, name and telephone #. Example. Hi this is Sam with Uptown Realty, @212-234-9987.
- State any important info that needs to be relayed. Such as if you are going to be out of town - when you will be back and who may be contacted, if you are not available.
- Tell the caller what is an appropriate message to leave, like please leave a brief message, with your name, telephone number and purpose of your call you will hear a beep in XX amount of seconds. Do not make promises to call back right away or soon - unless this is truly what you will be doing. State a reasonable amount of time IE: in the next 30 minutes, or 24 hours.
- If your system allows the caller to bypass your greeting--please give the caller this information.
- Please speak at a normal voice tone and speed. Nothing is more annoying than to have to listen to a message several times and the person is yelling into the phone.
- Try not to ramble.
Be Prepared When You Listen to Your Voicemail Messages:
- Have paper & pencil/pen handy.
- You do not have to return the calls in the sequence in which the call came in.
- Evaluate which ones are important and which ones can be returned later, or given to your assistant.
- Deal with your voicemail, on a regular basis do not wait until the end of the day to listen, schedule a time during the day in which you can handle listening to your voicemail. Example: Mid-morning, Mid-afternoon.
- No one likes to hear that the mail box is full, it sounds & is unprofessional.
- Be prepared to respond to your voicemail inquiries or call back with an explanation: Example: Ms. Smith I will need to research this matter and will get back to you by----.
- Try not to ignore or forget to return calls.
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