To set up a great phone system means adding brief audio messages in the right places for your callers to provide information, direct them to the correct person, and even hold their attention so the caller doesn’t hang up before they reach you.
These messages come in the form of greetings and announcements that make your business sound and function like a professional phone system. Educate yourself on what each kind of message is called and how it is used, with this quick reference guide of phone system audio sections.
1. Welcome Greeting
The Welcome Greeting is an optional greeting that you would place as an initial message for callers which they hear as soon as your system picks up.
This audio section is where you can include a basic, “Hello. Thank you for calling,” and a quick identification of your company if you like. The Welcome Greeting is not the place for detailed information or instructions, but simply a first point-of-contact.
2. Menu Prompt
One of the most important audio sections of your system, the Menu Prompt instructs your callers how to navigate your Call Menu (auto attendant), as well as how to access your company directory or dial-by-name directory.
As this message can already be a little lengthy, depending on how many options your Call Menu has, it’s best to include as little additional information as possible here. You can always designate a separate menu option for other information, or play it for callers while they’re on hold.
3. Company Directory
Your Company Directory is a recording in which you can provide for the caller a list of all of your extensions. Some businesses add this directory to the main Menu Prompt, but that’s not a great idea because it means that the caller will have to sit through the whole thing, even if they are not using one of your extensions.
The best place to put the Company Directory is in its own dedicated menu option, so that the caller can just press a number and hear the list of extensions for each individual or department.
4. Voicemail Greeting
Probably the most familiar audio message is the Voicemail Greeting, a.k.a., the Voicemail Prompt, and this one doesn’t need much explanation because we’ve all recorded and used them.
A couple of useful tips, though, are to keep your Voicemail Greeting brief and concise, as well as professional. If you’re not sure what to say in the recording, you’ll find a variety of examples you can use in this article:
https://talkroute.com/12-fun-professional-business-voicemail-greetings/
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.