I felt a little silly yesterday. I bought a new phone a while ago and left the store without having them set up my voicemail. I forgot all about it until yesterday when I told someone to call me on my cell and they could just leave me a message if I was in a meeting, or at lunch, or napping. I popped in to the Wireless Age on my way home and now I am good to go. I’ve talked about voicemail greetings before. You need to keep them short and to the point. You don’t need to say things like, “I can’t come to the phone right now….. “. I think, OK Captain Obvious, maybe that’s why I’m listening to a recorded message. Then there are those who don’t identify themselves so you’re not sure you have the correct number. The greeting starts with, “I, or we, can’t come to the phone right now” so you hesitate, wondering if you should leave a message. All we need to do is say, “This is so and so. Please leave me a message and I will call you back”, or something like that. I have been tempted to have my greeting say something along the lines of, “This is Vic Dubois. Please leave me a message and I will call you back as soon as possible….unless you are trying to sell me something, want me to take a survey, or represent a political party asking for money. If one of these is the case, don’t hold your breath”.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.