How to Leave a Voicemail
October 15th, 2007This cast describes how to leave an effective voicemail.
If you’ve ever gotten a voicemail which sounded like, “[your name], this is [their name], call me,” you know why we’re doing this cast.
Phone manners have been steadily decreasing for decades. When boys used to call for Mark’s daughter Kate, they would slouch verbally through, “Is Kate there?” and Mark would answer, “Yes,” and hang up. He safely assumed that any person who asked that question was a boy, and not enough of a gentleman to be allowed to speak with her. (At first she rolled her eyes, but later she liked the hurdle that Mark’s demand created: those boys that never got it ended up being…well, boys.)
What about at work? The “Bob this is Joe call me” is only one example. It ranks right up there with “saw that you called, what’s up?” answered with, “did you, errrrr…listen to my voicemail?”
In this cast, we have recommendations for how to leave a voicemail. We think of this as the first cast on phone skills…out of several hundred to come.
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October 15th, 2007 at 5:07 am
Mike and Mark,
Many thanks for the great podcast on the practically neglected aspect in the NON USA part of the world. You are very right that voice mail has to go a long way to be recognized as a communication tool in India and some other parts of the world.
At least this should help people to practice the skills when done so.
While the content covered are practical and may need the time for a new unchartered topic, wonder what you can do hit below 40 minute mark. (This was 51 minutes podcast). I guess thats an ideal time in commuting/ exercise etc.
Great show, keep going.
Regards
Karthik
Bangalore, India.
October 15th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Karthik-
They usually split up big podcasts like this one into two parts (at which point they get complaints because they split it- they can’t win). My guess is that Mike couldn’t find a good breakpoint in the middle.
Look at it this way- you get more Mike and Mark for your (free) dollar, *and* a new topic next week- what’s not to like!
–Rich
October 15th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Thanks for the comment on Efficient vs. Effective.
As a graphic designer I am geared towards being effective in communication but effecient in execution. In general, my leanings towards Efficiency may be my own “design flaw” that I should be aware of.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Sadly, these days I’d be quite happy with a “[your name], this is [their name], call me”. Normally all I get is the “Call me” and then have to try to work out who it was that left the message as invariably they have own number sending turned off and the line is so bad that I can’t identify the voice.
October 15th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
On the subject of “like email, voicemail is forever”, our phone system forwards voicemails to recipients as sound files in email, thus saving them forever and making them trivial to forward to the planet.
October 15th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
These days, I direct all my voicemail to my GrandCentral service, which means that I can get their name and number (assuming it’s not blocked) as a part of the message, which I can then pick up by phone or web client. So if I *do* get a “Call Me”, in most cases, there’s a number (and a name if I’ve stored it) associated with that message.
In the ideal world, of course, that little trick wouldn’t be necessary!
October 15th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
If I get a VM saying “please call me,” and it’s not my boss (or wife), I don’t. I WILL respond to a detailed request, however.
October 15th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
M & M,
Another great cast, guys!
I admit to being a bit long-winded when leaving VMs. (Although I don’t think I’ve ever reached 15 minutes!)
Thanks for the tools - I’ll begin using them today!
Allie
October 15th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Mark & Mike:
One of the best reasons to leave you name and be business like is the chance that the voice mail may be screened by the person’s assistant. I will have people check my voice mail when I am on vacation or stuck in all day meetings.
Greg Fox
Brea, CA
October 16th, 2007 at 1:18 am
If from a supplier or customer, I usually like the Voicemailer to leave their name, their company and then their phone number before the remainder of the message. I often get to the phone number and get the numbers mixed up as I write down the digits or memorize them. If I’m focusing just on the number, I will often replay the message. Little is more irritating than having to listen to the entire context of the message over and over again just to get to the phone number - even if the message is one minute
Technology has provided the call back number as a reference, but sometimes they call in from another line.
October 16th, 2007 at 4:03 am
[…] Moving your voicemail etiquette forward Posted on October 16, 2007 by Brock There was a great podcast today from Mike and Mark at Manager Tools about how to properly use voicemail. If you’ve ever use voice mail in your job or with your friends you need to listen to this cast. Here is a link to the cast: Voicemail Podcast. […]
October 17th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Mike and Mark,
Great cast.
Here’s a saying a colleague shared with me. I think applies to one of the key points in your cast.
Voicemail is a document.
Regards,
Steve
October 17th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
“Voicemail is a document” … I love that. Thanks for sharing, Steve.
Mike
October 17th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Another good one guys!
I’ve been following your casts since early days. I remember you made a comment that you had hundreds of casts to deliver - at the time I couldn’t imagine how you could possibly come up with another 20 topics - never mind hundreds! I’m starting to see …
As for voicemail - I like time & date as part of the message also; voicemail is not a primary communication method for me so it’s likely that even if someone leaves a message they’ll have got me by email or on my mobile by the time I listen to the message. Therefore there’s no point listening if it’s already dealt with. My ideal message would be ….
Fred here. 11am Tuesday. . Call me XXX XXX XXXX.
And I couldn’t agree more with the 1 minute target - Very rare that I’ll get past one minute of listening ……
Thanks again guys.
I.
October 17th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Hmm,
That should read,
Fred here. 11am Tuesday. The SHORT message. Call me XXX XXX XXXX.
Wordpress helpfully removed my short message as it was in brackets I think!
I.
October 17th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
The only improvement I can offer is to move the phone number up front. If you have to replay it to get the number again, you don’t need to listen to the entire number again.
Great cast. Thank you gentlemen.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
I agree. As an attorney, especially a divorce attorney, I try not to leave too much of a detailed message because you never know who else is listening. I usually move the conversation forward by letting the other person know when I will be available for them to reach me.
P.S. Voicemail is a very entertaining part of divorce court. You wouldn’t believe what people leave on voice mail. Everything from threats to seduction.
October 27th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Great topic. Amazing to see that you can spend 50 minutes just on voice mail.
Small suggestion from my side. I have noticed that people (like me) do not always note the name of the person leaving a voice mail. (Especially With persons you have not, or recently, met before.) Therefore I leave my name and company name again on the very end of the message to those persons that I only have occasional contact.
If you have stopped listing before there is no harm. For some it is a help so there is no need to re-play the voice mail just to get the name.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Great cast! A seemingly simple thing like leaving a message can be so critical. I always leave my name, company name, message and phone number (I go with the twice option). I will go farther in this regard to make certain that the receiver has no question as to who I am, why am calling and what capacity my role is.
As a Project Manager for a General Contractor I work with 100s of outside vendors. My title and company define my role in the process may serve to prioritize a response. I appreciate people that reciprocate this. Being able to prioritize responses is critical to effective decisions.
I evaluate people, their professionalism and other aspects about that person by the how they leave a voice mail. I believe I am judged in this same way, particularly if I am leaving a voice mail for someone that is higher ranking on the chain of command.
In the Construction Industry, unprofessional behavior far too common. I have been coaching my directs on proper voice mail and greetings. A professional voice mail stands out and I’m always pleased to hear one of my team hit the mark with an effective voice mail. I consider a good voice mail in the same capacity as a hand shake (Mark assessment in the Hand Shake cast). A good message or voice mail won’t get you very far, but a bad one can do a lot of damage.
Keep them coming guys. The management world needs you.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I advocate for repeating your contact information twice when leaving messages outside your org especially if you or the other person is using a cell phone. I’ve had several phone numbers be victimized by “breaking up” where I couldn’t hear the entire phone number.
Mark also mentioned slowing down. Your brain stores your phone number in a different part of the brain where memory is housed. Many people, when switching to that part of the brain, speed up when they begin saying the numbers out loud. Mark is right, that’s when you should slow down, especially for people balancing a cell phone on one shoulder while searching for a pencil. (Or for those who may be dyslexic.)
If you’re considering upgrading your voicemail system, be sure it has the option where you can speed up the replay. This is invaluable when searching for an address or phone number at the end of a message. Speeding up does not distort the person’s voice.
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I also repeat the contact information, but I use it as “bumpers” around the short message. That way my name and phone number are easy to get to at the beginning of the message (and still available if the call gets dropped or end of the message is cut-off), but the listener also has a chance to get it again at the end.
I’ve often been complimented on my phone manners. Rather than saying the bar isn’t set too high, I’ll just say “Thanks Mom and Dad!”
November 6th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I run the advertising operations of a large online advertising company which results in frequent calls regarding problems. What I’ve found effective is making clear in my voice mail greeting that any urgent operations problems should be emailed to me as I’m travel and sit in meeting extensively. In reality most problems need to be delegated and a voice mail slows down the works in a email driven company.
November 6th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Rob-
That sounds fine…but is what you’re saying is that if a customer calls with a problem, you want them to honor your culture and communicate with you in a way that works for you? That seems backwards to me….but I could have your post messed up in my head.
Mark
November 7th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Is there any way to leave an effective VM message when you’re in sales? I work for a university. I follow up with students that request info via our many web links. 90% of my day is centered around leaving messages. I have as of today only had a handful of call backs for my many thousands of messages. I have had students go back to our site and start the process. But our initial meeting is usually around voice mail. It’s also not practical to leave a great deal of info in the message due to compliance issues. So what do I do?
November 7th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Hi Guys,
I agree with your steps in leaving voice mails. The only thing I change is to leave my number as the 3rd step instead of the 4th. For example, “Hi —–“, “It’s (My name is) ——“, “Please call me at ——–“, message.
The purpose is, if the message is relatively long (over 30 seconds) and the called person misses the number, they can rewind and listen to the first 10 seconds instead of re-listening to the entire message to get the number. Strictly a high “D” approach.
November 18th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
What a wonderful podcast. We will use this with our entire office. But can you guys, soon, do a cast on how to answer the phone? We are continually stunned by how difficult such a seemingly simple task is. The easy part is to do it badly. We need help.
November 21st, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Interesting cast. I learned a lot how you see this tool in the US.
I guess if we use voicemail over here in Europe we quite do like you suggested.
However, what I find most unprofessional about voicemail of colleagues is the message you get when calling a voicemail.
Quite often you get the voice of that nice lady saying …you got the mailbox of… PAUSE … then the guy saying in his own voice … John Doe … PAUSE … then they lady again …please leave a message…
And worst case while the guy says his name you here a lot of background noise.
I’m always laughing hearing that, because it shouldn’t be to hard figuring out your own message.
I don’t know about the US, but for Europe it would be worth a cast of it’s own.
Gerry
November 22nd, 2007 at 5:46 pm
All-
We WILL do a cast on how to answer the phone, and how to create your outgoing message.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Mark
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:51 am
Mark/Mike
Can you also include in the cast, how to answer someone else’s phone, when in a shared office? But without the caller getting the impression that you are that person’s PA - a problem for women sharing offices with men!
If I had a pound for everytime I ended up *feeling* like saying ‘look mate, I’ve done you a favour here picking the phone up at all! I’m not his PA and I havent the foggest where he has gone or when he will be back. Asking me a fourth time wont make me know any more’. But I am too much of a lady!!!
Mary
November 28th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Great cast. I would also second the recommendation to leave your number twice at the end. I’ve been doing it for years and find it amazing how many people have commented it helps them write the number down when they hear it a second time immediately after the first one.
Don
November 29th, 2007 at 12:54 am
Mark & Mike-
I enjoy all your podcasts and think that they are mostly relevant to what I do as VP R&D in a small medical device company (14 employees). However, there are things you cover that are clearly only applicable in larger companies. Have you thought doing some casts on problems specific to small/start-up companies?
Thanks.
Neil
November 29th, 2007 at 1:20 am
Neil-
Name one cast that is “clearly only applicable in larger companies”.
Mark