Voicemail is a (seemingly) convenient way for customers to contact your business when their calls have been missed; it's sensible to have a voicemail for when you’re busy or out of office. However, with voicemail comes questions about scripting, capturing leads, and its overall effectiveness. In this blog, four frequently asked questions about voicemail will be answered!
What Should My Voicemail Greeting Include?
If you are currently using voicemail for your business, your greeting should include:
- your business's name,
- hours of operation, and
- an invitation for the caller to leave their first and last name, question, and phone number.
You could also suggest an alternate way for the caller to get in touch with your business, whether that be via e-mail or through the chatbox on your website.
Do People Leave Voicemails on Business Phones?
Though some people do still leave a voicemail on business phones, the majority of callers hang up the moment they reach an automated system. This is because:
1. the caller has a need that they want to be fulfilled ASAP, or
2. they don't have faith that the business will return their call in a timely fashion.
In fact, "Statistics from Forbes magazine show that 80 percent of callers sent to voicemail do not leave messages because they don't think they'll even be heard" (CRM).
Therefore, instead of leaving a voicemail, callers tend to simply go to the next business wherein they can reach a person and schedule an appointment or ask their question.
How Effective Is Voicemail at Capturing Leads?
Being that so many callers hang up upon reaching an automated voice, there are many leads that go totally un-captured with voicemail. However, even out of the callers that leave a voicemail, only a small portion of them will answer when you return their message. This is due to the fact that spam calls have increased by 128%, and Americans now answer less than half of all calls they receive on their mobile phones (Hiya).
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When Do Callers Expect A Call Back?
Callers expect a call back from businesses within thirty minutes of leaving a voicemail. That being said, you have a thirty-minute window of opportunity before customers mistake your phone call for spam. If you're a growing, busy business, this is not much time, especially when you consider call overflow!
In Conclusion...
All in all, voicemail could work for your business if you implement a solid greeting and respond to all messages within thirty minutes. However, if you're a growing, busy business, the issues that come with voicemail evaporate once you have a live, 24/7 answering service on your side. It is then that missed leads become a thing of the past, and your company will be able to book more jobs. If you want to learn more about how a live answering service could help your business to grow, click here!
