An earlier posting, Do Rainmakers Leave Messages?, discussed the kinds of voicemail messages to leave and when to leave them.  This one covers the practicalities and etiquette for leaving a message that every professional should know.  Many obviously don’t.

If you leave five voicemail messages every working day, a low estimate, it totals to about 1,200 messages a year. Each message you leave serves as a small advertisement for what you would be like to work with.  Leaving a voicemail message is one of those small things you had best do right.

To start, think of the problem from the recipient’s point of view, an easy task because we all receive voicemail messages.  It is best to assume that at the time she picks up your message, the receiver is in a rush, squeezing the call to her voicemail box in between other urgent matters.  Assume that yours is one of a number of messages she must get through as quickly as she can.  Finally, assume that she is not in a location where she can write easily and that she must hear you over a bit of background noise.  Sound familiar?  If you make these assumptions, your voicemail messages will be better under all conditions.

Here are the steps you should follow:

1>     Leave your name first, stating it clearly and spelling it, if it is likely to be hard to understand. If needed provide the name of your company or other relevant affiliation.

2>     Immediately after your name and company, leave your phone number. Immediately after your name and company, leave your phone number! Got that? Doing this saves the recipient from having to replay your entire message again to get your number, if she doesn’t get it the first time through.  State the number slowly and clearly, so the recipient has at least a hope of getting it down the first time.

People who leave 20 minute voicemail messages and then blurt out a garbled phone number at machinegun speed at the end are a menace to the business world and should be forced to attend voicemail courtesy training the way bad drivers are forced to attend auto safety classes. Leave your number this way and people will come to dread your messages.

If you are not in the habit of leaving your number immediately after your name, you will have to work at it to retrain yourself.  Go to the trouble.  The delayed, garbled, fast-spoken phone number is the most common and most annoying breach of voicemail message etiquette.  Leaving it this way also marks you as an inconsiderate rube.

3>     Next, consider giving a short indication of the urgency of your call. This is not always desirable—sometimes you don’t want to emphasize your lack of urgency—but when it is, you can help your contact make a quick decision about whether to listen to your message now or leave it for later.  The exact wording depends on such factors as your relationship with the recipient.  (This isn’t urgent . . . It would be helpful if over the next couple of days … I’m in need of some quick help, if you can …)

4>     Next, provide the core of your message as concisely as you can. If it is bound to be lengthy or complicated, consider sending an email instead of leaving a message.  If you want something, make the request clear.

5>     Consider leaving a brief personal message at the end. (Give my best to Adam and the kids). You may also want to repeat your phone number slowly.

You have many opportunities to practice these guidelines. Use them.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 8:22 am and is filed under Phone Calls, Professionalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.