Whether you're using a voiceover artist or a coat closet to record a professional phone greeting, creating a simple framework will help keep the face of your business consistent.
More small and medium sized companies today are implementing IVR menus to greet callers. Automated menus get a bad rap for being too long, broken, and repetitive, but if you have the right tools and the right concept, it can add much value.
Outlined here are three simple guidelines that will go a long way in making your business phone greeting sound professional, not home-made.
Less people are using voicemail. For the time being, it's still around, so the same basic concepts apply when producing professional voicemail greetings.
The tone of your greeting should reflect your brand and company culture. Are you a young tech company or a nonprofit org?
Tone can be described as upbeat, friendly, or calm.
Identifying the right adjectives will help your voiceover artist deliver the right tone and attitude. Specific directions, pronunciations, and examples will improve the chances of getting the results you want from a voiceover artist.
Thank you for calling the WeHo Marketing Company. It's our pleasure to help you! Please select one to speak to a creative consultant, or two to be connected to our lovely receptionist.
Understanding tone is critical in crafting your script. It not only impacts the tone of voice, but the content/vocabulary of your messaging.
Write out your script and read it out loud.
Get your team involved in this exercise! The phone greeting for your business is as crucial as the welcome sign on your store front. Marketers and customer service agents alike should have a say.
Forget how it's been done. Your script should be totally original and answer why your customer's calling.
Option in the IVR menu should reflect the top customer phone support issues.
You've reached Busy Bee Accounting. Please press one to make an appointment, press two to make a payment, and press three to speak to our next available agent. Thank you for your patience during this busy time of year!
The great thing about being able to customize your IVR menu anytime, is updating it anytime to reflect the patterns of your business' evolution.
If tone and personalization doesn't translate to every single caller, simplicity will. In most cases, a business should keep each menu greeting to under 30 seconds.
Like in writing, chapters and headings help readers digest information. Similarly, you can create sub-menus.
For English press one, for all other languages, press two.
When the caller presses two, they can be directed to another menu where you offer support in various languages, and so on.
Unique sub-menus can be used for open and closed business hours, different departments, and product types. The trick is not to create too many menus, but more importantly, to keep those menus relevant and concise.