It may not initially feel like it, but the message you provide for your office answerphone can be surprisingly important. This can be the first point of contact with your brand for some people, so it’s absolutely crucial that you get it right. While you might not want it to be super serious and corporate-sounding, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take it seriously. If your answerphone message doesn’t project the right brand image, you could be in trouble.
Firstly, you need to make sure you have a good, reliable phone system, such as those by Panasonic. This is because you don’t want your phones to be constantly cutting out or going down, meaning nobody will be able to reach your line at all. To ensure people can actually reach your number in the first place, buy your phones from a reputable company, and make sure they are business-standard rather than simple landline phones.
When you’re coming up with your answerphone message, you need to think about the tone you want to project. If you’re a young, fun company, don’t hide behind anything too stuffy or serious. Instead, make the tone reflect your business. If your brand was a person, what would they sound like? Would they be friendly, quirky or very professional and sensible? If there is nobody suitable to record the message, you could even consider hiring a voice actor.
As for the message itself, keep it brief. Think about it as the blurb for your company. Introduce the company, explain that the office is closed and give the appropriate information about office hours and alternative contact details for emergencies. Make sure you say how people can get in touch, and what the procedure will be for dealing with their message. For instance, will you call them back, or would you prefer them to leave an email address?
What you don’t want to do is bombard the caller with information. They would prefer to call back at a convenient time to fully discuss their reason for calling, so would probably rather not sit and listen to a message that goes on for several minutes in an attempt to cover all their possible reasons for getting in touch. Instead, keep it light and brief and make sure you provide enough information to show the caller that their call is important, and reassure them that it will be dealt with as soon as possible.
Peter Garrison is a business communications consultant who helps businesses large and small make effective use of modern communications equipment
Originally posted on May 17, 2013 @ 9:03 am