Everybody hates voice mail, but everybody uses it and it's a must have for any business, small or large.
There are hundreds of voicemail systems to choose from. But what you do with your voice mail system after you purchase it and have it installed is totally up to you. And that's where problems begin.
Let's say a current client calls in to reorder or a potential client calls in to place their first order - but instead of a warm, live, friendly voice answering the phone they get a standard greeting that goes something like this.
"Hello, you're reached Petey's Peanut Butter - the home of the worlds freshest nuts. For Sales press 1. For service press 2. If you've just eaten some of our delicious peanut butter and your tongue is stuck to the roof of your mouth, Press 3. All other callers, please press 4 or stay on the line for the next available Peanut Butter expert."
"If you're calling from a rotary phone, please hang up now and call Ripley's Believe It Or Not, because no one in this day and age is still using a rotary phone and if you are, we refuse to do business with you."
So you press 1 and get this. "Thank you for calling Petey's Peanut Butter Sales Department. - the home of the worlds freshest nuts. For crunchy press 1. For creamy, press 2. If you index finger is also stuck to the roof of your mouth, press 3." And so on and so on.
It's maddening! But it's a problem that's easily corrected. First, when creating your voicemail greeting, put yourself in the callers place. The most amount of buttons I want to push when calling a supplier, customer or Department of Motor Vehicles is 2. The DMV will never get you to where you want to go within 2 buttons. Why? Well, for one their a huge operation and two - they don't know how to use a voice-mail system properly and obviously don't care. But you do. If you didn't you wouldn't be reading this.
So here are some tips. Use them or not - it's only your company, home, car, vacation, retirement and children's college tuition at stake.
1. Do not ever, ever put your company slogan on your voicemail greeting. It sounds ridiculous. I know you have the worlds best nuts. That's why I'm calling you and not the company that claims to have the worlds next best nuts.
2. Hire a real living, breathing person to answer the phone. And once you do - TRAIN them. How many times has someone put you on-hold and left you there so long, that you had to hang up and call in again. Don't be that company!
The best company on earth at answering phones is Crosspoint Productions in Lakewood, Colorado. Their receptionist, Marge, has been there for 20 years or more and she is a consummate pro. You call in and Marge answers, she is polite, friendly and professional. You ask for Tom and your call get's directed right to Tom's desk. And she tells you she's sending your call to Tom's desk. Not like some receptionists, who just press a button and you wonder if she just hung up on you. So, your call goes right through - Tom picks up the phone and you're doing business. If Tom's not near the phone you get his voice mail message, which usually includes his mobile number, or you can press zero and have him paged. That's called "getting it right." Crosspoint values your business just as much as any other company, but they have their phone system and voicemail system down to an art form. You should too!
3. Do your due diligence and research voicemail systems or have your IT person do it and let them know they had better hit a home run on this, because you don't want to struggle with operating the darn thing for 2 months and driving your customers to another company.
4. Hire a professional voice over artist to record your voice mail prompts. A professional voice over artist sets your company apart by sounding professional. Sounding like they and you know what you're talking about and sounding like someone who actually works there, not someone who does car radio commercials all the time.
5. Change the wording of your outgoing message every 3-4 months. There are creative ways to build a voicemail message. You don't have to sound like everybody else.
6. Have a clean clear on-hold message integrated into your phone system. More on that next time...
Your telephone and voicemail systems are often your company's first line of interaction between your business and your clientele. Screw it up with a potential customer and you may never get a second chance with them again. And the scariest apart is, you won't even know you had a chance with them in the first place. They'll just hang up and move on.
Call me at 303-494-3322 to learn more or to have a professional voice over artist create your voicemail greeting. If I don't pick up, leave a message. And feel free to pass this on to companies who need to read it. I'd do it myself, but right now I have to run to the stores. I just realized I'm out of peanut butter.
