How to Setup a Business Voicemail Greeting (with Examples)

When you call a business phone number, you are often greeted with an automated voicemail greeting that helps guide you through the phone directory and next steps.

These voicemail greeting makes your small business look professional, and they can help increase sales as well as boost customer satisfaction.

In this article, we will show you how to set up a voicemail greeting for your online store, business, or blog. We’ll also show you the best voicemail greeting examples that you can use as a template.

Why Voicemail Greeting is Important for Your Business?

More than 88% of local searches on mobile devices end up in a phone call. Mainly thanks to the nifty click to call buttons that appear in Google local search results.

For many small businesses, it may not be possible to answer all the calls immediately. Sometimes customers may call after business hours, and you may be busy or have no staff available at that time.

This is where your voicemail greeting comes in.

For many customers, this will be their first contact with your business. Not setting up a voicemail greeting can cause you to lose a customer to your competitor.

On the other hand, not getting the voicemail greeting right can also have serious consequences. Customers may hang up, not follow through, or simply reach out to your competitors.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to properly set up voicemail greeting for your online business.

The Best Way to Set up a Voicemail Greeting

Normally, small business owners use a landline or mobile phone number to manage calls. While it may get the job done, they do not allow you to properly manage business calls or set up an effective automated voicemail greeting.

The best way to manage business calls is by using a business phone service. A lot of small businesses use a virtual business phone number because it lets them effectively manage business calls without sacrificing their privacy.

Unlike a landline or mobile number, it uses the internet to manage calls. The official term for this technology is called business VoIP phone service (Voice over Internet Protocol).

Using a business phone service gives you the following advantages over the landline and mobile.

• You can set your business hours and record different voice greetings to be played based on the time of the day.
• You can set up auto attendant, add extensions to route the calls, let users leave a voice message, and more.
• It works on your computer, tablet, a desk phone, and even on your mobile phone using apps.
• Multiple users can use the same phone number regardless of their location.
• You can easily give access to new employees without calling in a technician or buying new equipment.

We recommend using Nextiva because it is the best business phone service provider on the market. They offer a comprehensive set of features with an easy to use web-based admin panel and apps for your phone.

We use Nextiva in our business to manage calls for WPBeginner and other Awesome Motive properties.

If you want a different solution, then take a look at RingCentral. It is another great business phone service. They offer an incredibly feature-rich platform, with lots of tools to manage voice greetings, auto-attendants, voice messages, call transcripts, and more.

Once you have set up a business phone service, you can set up voice greetings using their easy to follow settings.

Voice Greeting Examples for Businesses

There are some basic rules that you must follow to create the most effective voicemail greetings.

• Avoid cliches like ‘Your call is important to us’ they are overused and don’t feel sincere anymore.
• Make sure that your voicemail recording sounds friendly and personal.
• Try not to sound like you are reading from a script.
• If you can, then hire a voice artist to help you record voicemail greetings. You can even find someone on Fiverr.
• Make sure that your voicemail provides important information like business hours and contact information.

Following are some voicemail greeting templates that you can use for your business.

Off Hours Voicemail Greeting Examples

This voicemail greeting will be played when customers call you after business hours or during weekends. Make sure that this voicemail greeting informs users about office hours, alternative ways to reach customer service, or store location.

“Hi, you’ve reached [business name]. We are available by phone from [9 am] to [6 pm] [PST] Monday to Friday. You can also use the contact form on our website, [www.example.com] to leave us a message and we’ll get back to you via email. If you’d like us to call you back, then please leave your name and number after along with a short message, and our team will get back to you as soon as possible.”

“Hi, you’ve reached [business name]. We are currently unable to answer your call. Our office hours are [business hours] Monday to Friday. Our store at [store location] remains open for customers during weekends. You can also contact us via live chat on our website [www.example.com] [24 hours a day 7 days a week]. If this is not urgent, and you’d like us to callback then please leave your name and number after the beep.”

As you can see both examples deliver important information and offer customers alternate ways to contact via live chat or contact form.

Vacation Voicemail Greeting Examples

These greeting messages can be recorded during the holidays.

“Hello, you’ve reached [business name]. Our team is currently out of the office to spend holidays with friends and family. We’ll be back to work on [day and time]. Please leave us your name and number and we will get back to you ASAP. [Happy Holidays (or suitable greeting for that holiday)]”.

“Happy holidays! Our team at [business name] is away until [date]. If you are an existing customer, you can still open a support ticket on our website, we will try to get back to you within the next 24 hours. You can also contact us via live chat or contact form on our website [www.example.com]. If it is not urgent, then you can leave us your name and number after the beep. We will return your call as soon as possible.”

“Hi, you have reached [company name]. We are closed for (holiday name) and will get back to work on [date and time]. If you need an urgent response you can email us at (email_address) we will try to answer all emails within 24 hours. You can also leave us a message and we will get back to you after the holidays (Happy New Year / Holiday)”.

As you can see these voicemail greetings provide customers as much information as possible. These greetings also ensure that customers know how to get a quicker response using alternate contact methods during the holidays.

Away / Busy Voicemail Greeting Examples

If you are busy, away, or understaffed and cannot answer the customer calls immediately, then you can use these greetings as an example.

“Hi, you have reached [business name], we are unable to take your call right now but we would love to call you back ASAP. Please leave us your name and number after the beep.”

“Hi, we are currently away from the phone. If it isn’t too urgent, then you can email us at (email address). Otherwise please leave your name and number after the beep and we’ll call you back right away.”

If you are the only person answering calls, then you can make it a personal voicemail greeting.

“Hi, you have reached (Your Name). I am currently unable to answer the phone. You can send me an email to (email address) or you can leave your name and number after the beep and I’ll call you back as soon as possible.”

Test and Improve Your Voicemail Greetings

Another great reason to use a professional phone service is that you can track all your calls and view detailed reports about them. For example, this is how Nextiva’s call analytics page looks like.

You would need to track how many users hear each voicemail greeting and how they responded. Voicemail greetings with a higher score of customers leaving a message are working efficiently.

Voicemail messages that are not even heard completely are a failure.

We recommend trying different voicemail greetings to find the perfect balance. Updating your voicemail greeting periodically can also help you fill communication gaps that you didn’t even know existed.

Follow up Your Voicemail Messages

Now that you have set up balanced, informative, and friendly voicemail greeting, the next step is even more crucial.

What happens after a customer leaves you a voice message?

If you are using a professional business phone system, then you’ll be easily able to track and respond to those messages.

Make sure that you and your staff are equally well prepared for a quick followup. A prompt callback goes a long way in strengthening business relationships and closing sales.

We hope this article helped you learn how to set up voicemail greeting for your online business. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter for your business.

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