Creating the Perfect Voicemail Greeting For Your Security Company
Many dealers and integrators may be taking off for the long holiday weekend today or tomorrow. Before you leave for a few leisurely days of well deserved R&R, take a few minutes to review your voicemail greeting. It can make a big difference in giving the right first impression to your prospects and a professional image for your current subscribers.
Believe it or not, your voicemail greeting is a powerful tool in establishing a relationship with prospective customers. It probably has more influence than you, or even the listener may realize. A voicemail greeting tells the listener something very specific about your communication and sensitivity to the customer. The assumption is that your voicemail is your best effort to make a good impression— and it should be!
Are you using your voicemail to its full potential? If not, here are some ways to create a voicemail message that positively reflects your business and moves the listener from caller to customer.
Record the Message in a Quiet Place
Background noise in a recorded greeting is not only distracting to the caller, it also distracts from your professional image. A noisy background communicates to callers that you are too busy and may make them feel unimportant.
Here is the simple fix. Record your greeting in your office or another quiet place. Turn off anything that could be a distraction, such as other phones or devices.
Be Creative
Customers have choices so it is always important to stand out from among the throng. Generic greetings such as “I’m away from my desk right now but if you leave your name and number I will be happy to return your call,” are so common that it resonates about as well as the generic computer generated voicemail prompts. Your voicemail is one way to stand out and be memorable, and creating one does not have to be intimidating.
Try something that includes a few details of your business. Something like “Hi You have reached Blue Jean Security, we believe that customer service is the fabric of our business. Please leave us a message so we can help you leave the security blues behind.”
Make it Fun
First impressions are everything, but even in business they do not always need to stiffly professional. Adding your own wit will help callers know you are human and makes you more relatable. You can even involve the caller in the fun. For example, you can ask the callers to leave their message “Mission Impossible” style. After all, the message could self-destruct if not answered promptly.
Engage the Caller
When you create a voicemail greeting, do it keeping in mind that you are really having a conversation. When you create the opportunity for dialogue you present the opportunity for the caller to be engaged with you and your brand.
The easiest way to engage the caller is by asking a question. For example, you could tell customers you will get back to them ASAP if they share their favorite movie explosion.
Smile!
Smiling is so powerful that it cannot help making an impression, even if it is over the phone. Think about it: you have probably have probably heard someone smiling through the phone and it made a lasting impression on you.
Let your smile help you create a positive and enthusiastic tone for your message that will resonate with the caller.
Write it Out and Rehearse
Not all of us excel at public speaking. In voicemail greetings, it is important to avoid pitfalls such as “like”, “um”, and “uh” so it helps to know what you will say prior to recording. Write it out and practice it aloud a few times until you are comfortable, but not over rehearsed. You’ll sound much more confident which will go a long way in projecting professionalism.
Identify Yourself and the Business
Unless you know the person well, when you call someone you do not have a way to know if you actually called the right number. Even worse, if you call a number and it is not identified as a business, you assume you’ve reached a wrong number. Take the pressure off the caller and identify yourself and the business immediately. Not only will this reduce the number of hang-ups, it will capture customers that could have been lost.
Give Your Callers a Checklist of Information to Provide
When you make and receive numerous calls in a day, it can get a little chaotic. If you want to streamline the calls let the caller know exactly what information you need from them, especially is you need more than a name and phone number. This will allow you to get back to each person more quickly which customers appreciate.
Update the Greeting Regularly
The very things that make your greeting interesting and timely also make them time sensitive. Update your voicemail frequently to include new information. The fact that your greeting is not evergreen and up-to-date means you are on top of your game and that will not be missed by the caller.
Keep It Positive
Words are powerful and convey much more than the message itself. Avoiding negative words like sorry, can’t, and unfortunately will go a long way in keeping what you intend to be a positive message, positive.
For example, try “leave a message and I will get right back to you!” over, “I’m sorry, I can’t take your call right now.” The change is small but the impact is huge.
Now…take these tips and go craft the perfect voicemail greeting. We will be calling you!
Ignite RMR is a leading digital marketing resource for dealers and integrators nationwide. Contact us today for a complimentary 30 minute consultation on how to generate new leads for your security business.
