Voice Mail Standards

What is the number one item we need to leave on a voice mail if we want to make sure we get a call back? I would say a phone number.

So why do so many people wait till the end to leave their callback number? Sometimes it gets cut off. Sometimes it is said so fast that we need to listen to the entire message again just to get to the phone number.

So this is my attempt to try and set a standard for leaving a voice mail message.

We should always start with the big three:

1.       Our name.

2.       Our company.

3.       Our phone number.

After those are covered we can then leave our brief message and politely ask how we would like the person to respond to us or if we will try back again another time. At that point we should repeat the “big three”, pausing after saying “…and my number is…” thus giving the recipient a moment to begin to write our phone number.

If we need to listen to the message again to capture the phone number, we do not need to listen to the entire message just for that one little piece of information.

I hope someone can utilize this suggestion to improve their communications, either leaving or receiving messages.