Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi. Did any of you ever wonder why people have decided it is appropriate to blatantly lie on their voice mail messages? It puzzles me as to why people do it.

Ok. You are a sales person and you call ABC Business and Mary’s voice mail comes on as “she is not at her desk.” Funny, whenever I call and ask for Mary and I have called her 6-8 times over a period of several months, and at different times of the day, she is never at her desk. Now that makes me wonder as well, however, Mary says, “Hi. You have reached Mary Quitecontrary and I am not at my desk right now. (Are you ready? Do you catch this? Here comes the lie now)--If you leave me your name and number and a “brief” message I will be sure to get back you as quickly as possible. Thank you for calling. Have a great day.” Beep!

Lie! Lie ! Lie! She never returns the call. She never returns my call. Okay, maybe you or I should just quit calling Mary but I do not stop calling as I truly feel that I might be able to help her. But it is that voice mail message of hers that I can not get out of my head.

Now, here is my voice mail message. “Hi, you have reached Harold Cameron and Haroldsays.com the place where we RAVE about your business when you meet or exceed your customers expectations and we RANT about your business when you fail to meet your customers expectations. Please leave me your name, number, and the reason for your call”--(Now catch the difference in my voice mail message here)--”If I like what I hear I will call you back, however, if I do not like what I hear,” ( I sort of laugh or snicker at this point),“sucks to be youuuuu uuuuuuuuuuuu, because I am not going to call you back. So, leave that message. And you go make it a sensational day!” How is that for a voice mail message? Hey, at least it is honest. I do return my calls to be sure, however, if someone calls that I do not want to talk to and they keep calling and calling and I do not return their call, then they should be able to get the message of my message-(I did not like what I hear so I am not returning their call). End of story. Case closed. And they should just stop calling. By the way, I do get a lot of laughs and response from my message.

What do you think about voice mail messages in general? What about using voice mail messages for sales or marketing purposes? What do you think about what I am sharing in this post? Share your thoughts, ideas, or feelings with me about voice mail messages, about my message, and what message you think should be left on the voice mail recording for a business.

Voice mail messages should always be kept up-to-date. Be specific. "I will be back in the office at 4 pm today. I will return calls tomorrow first thing." Good idea is to make a habit of changing your voice mail every day - first thing in the morning. By changing voice mail messages every day, people know you are staying on top of things and you care. However, I find most business people think this is a good idea, but have a hard time establishing this habit - but this is true for most folks trying to establish any new habit.

Inject humor. Be positive. Show some life in your voice. Record your message standing up. Sales people, in particular, will find that lively, fun, current messages will improve sales, too.

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