Voicemail is pretty straightforward. Every business uses it because you just can’t get to every call, but is every business using voicemail to its full potential? Probably not. Put these 4 strategies into practice to get the most out of your business voicemail.
1. Voicemail-to-Email for Automated Ticketing
Voicemail benefits from automation more than anything because not only can you use your virtual phone system to automatically route messages to the correct mailbox and receive notifications instantly, but voice mailboxes can be set to create a new ticket for each new message.
Simply set the voice mailbox to forward new messages to the email address connected with your ticketing software. It’s a highly useful makeshift integration to help save you some time.
2. Route an Extension Straight to Voicemail
There are a few reasons why you would want an extension or menu option that, when selected, routes the caller directly to voicemail. You might have someone on your team who only works from voicemail instead of taking live calls, or you might just want to give callers the option because some people just want to leave you a message.
3. Ask for the Information You Need
You can record a standard voicemail greeting for callers who have reached your mailbox, which works fine; however, you might want to say more than, “Please leave a message and we will return your call.”
Depending on your particular business, you can ask the caller to leave a message with their account number, email address, or any other pertinent information. It just might save you a step when you finally speak with the person.
4. Response Time
When a caller reaches your voicemail, it’s pretty easy to tell them that they’ll get a reply within one business day. What if you boldly stated in the voicemail greeting that you will call them back within the hour? Your callers will be encouraged to hear that, and they will be very impressed when you actually follow through on that promise. You may be surprised how quickly that kind of reputation can spread.
Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.