Are your voicemails greetings spreading lies about you?
By Kevin Reinert on 04 Sep 2007 at 08:45 am
I’m not sure of the exact percentage, but it sure seems like most of the time I call a salesperson, customer service representative, or prospect I get a recording and directed into voicemail. That wouldn’t be so bad if the voice on that message wasn’t lying to me more than half the time. What do I mean?
How often has the voicemail greeting you’ve heard say something like the following message? “Your call is important to me. Please leave your name and number and I’ll call you right back.”
What a load of garbage. The salesperson or customer service representative doesn’t call you back. Instead, if you need their service bad enough, you call back several times and when you finally get someone they act like they never got the message or tell you “I was just going to call you.” Yeah, right!
More and more, it appears companies, salespeople, and prospects are screening their calls by sending people into voicemail. I’m not going to debate whether that’s right or wrong; however, if your message says you’re going to call the person back right away and you don’t, you are a liar, plain and simple.
How about you? Does your voicemail greeting promise a call back? Perhaps you don’t feel you owe someone a call if you think they’re only calling you to sell you something you might not need. If that’s the case, remove the part of the message that says “I will call you back.” Instead, try a message that says something like “You’ve reached the desk of ______. I’m not able to take your call right now. At the tone, you may leave a message.” Now, at least you’re not promising to call someone back.
One of the ways I differentiate myself in the marketplace is by returning calls as soon as I can. You’d be amazed at the responses I hear. Clients and prospects have frequently stopped to tell me how much they appreciated my sense of urgency on their behalf and the fact I lived up to my word to call back.
Think about your voicemail greeting. Is it building up your credibility or positioning you as a liar?
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Depends on the salesperson. Your call to me IS important. It is my life’s blood, my meat and potatoes and my Oxygen all rolled into one. I guarantee I will call you back, and generally within the hour. I back that up with systems that page me at lunch, or wake me up in the middle of the night. You problem isn’t lies from your sales person. You’re just calling the wrong pro!
Now, while we’re complaining, let’s talk about people who request information from an organization and then ignore the salesperson who is calling to try to help. This happens to me (in IT sales) all the time. The people who request info from our web site really don’t like to talk to humans. They would rather get the info without talking to people. I’m sorry. It’s the only way I can help. If you request info from a selling organization, expect a call and then please ! respond.