I can’t believe how powerful this one little change has been.
Let me ask you,
“Would you rather leave a message on someone’s voice mail or call them back at a later time?”
Voice mail is now almost a turnoff because of the delay in people getting back to us. Also, many voice mail messages are simply sales calls which ask the receiving person to call back. I have found from my experience that these type of calls, get a very low priority.
Isn’t it time to move voice mail into the current technology?
If you have a voice mail message at your office, I would suggest the following:
Provide a welcome greeting, tell people to leave you a message and also give people the option to send you an email. YES EMAIL! Give people your email address in your message and spell it out so there is no confusion on how to send a message to you.
Through this process, I have been able to get people to send me emails which provide more detailed information, provide return contact information and I can get back to them in a much more productive manner. In addition, I have cut down on the number of voice mail messages I receive. This can be welcome news to those of you who are on the phone quite a bit.
I really believe this method is so successful because it is so different than the dry, boring voice mail messages that we typically we receive and people respond better to something new and refreshing.
Try it!
