Aside from having great professional voice over talent, writing great copy for your voicemail greetings is essential to a good experience for your callers, and to your business success.  Let’s face it, no one likes navigating through a million voicemail or auto-attendant script options.  Our best advice is to write the script as if you were the person calling in.  If the script is just a single voicemail greeting (like an after hours message), you would probably want a very brief greeting to be followed by an option to leave a message.  If the script consists of different options, as most auto-attendant messages do, you probably want to navigate through as few options as possible.  The options should be concise and clear.  

Here’s an example of a typical auto-attendant message:
Thank you for calling XYZ Company. We’re the world’s best makers of XYZ Widgets, that help keep the aviation, automotive and consumer electronics industries running strong.
Please Press 1 for Sales Of Special Widgets and Stuff.
Please Press 2 to talk with a Service person about service.
Please Press 3 to speak with a technical support person.
If you know your party’s extension, you can enter it at any time.
Please press zero to speak to an operator.
Thank you for calling XYZ Company, the best widgets around!

Here’s what we would change and why:
Thank you for calling XYZ Company. We’re the world’s best makers of XYZ Widgets, that help keep the aviation, automotive and consumer electronics industries running strong. (This line is too long, and not an ideal place to sell your company. A brief tag-line is OK).
Please Press 1 for Sales Of Special Widgets and Stuff. (For all options, the number to press should come after the description, otherwise callers can forget what to press).
Please Press 2 to talk with a Service person about service. (“Please” is unnecessary on every option. Once at the beginning and maybe once at the end is polite, anything more can be annoying and time consuming).
Please Press 3 to speak with a technical support person. (All these options use too many words to describe a basic category. Something like “For Technical Support, press 3″ works much better).
If you know your party’s extension, you can enter it at any time. (This should be at the beginning of the greeting to be of maximum benefit).
Please press zero to speak to an operator.
Thank you for calling XYZ Company, the best widgets around! (You already thanked them once in the beginning, twice needlessly lengthens what callers must listen to).

Finally, here’s our suggested auto-attendant script sample:
Thank you for calling XYZ Company, maker of the world’s best widgets.
If you know your party’s extension, you may enter it at any time.
For Sales Please press 1.
For Service press 2.
For Technical Support press 3.
To speak to an operator, please press zero.

Naturally, options such as what numbers to press and what functions are available will vary from voicemail system to voicemail system. What we’re trying to do here is suggest ways that just about any voicemail greeting, ivr or auto attendant script can be improved.

Try reading the first and last version out loud. Which one would you rather hear if you called a company? We feel a concisely, accurately written auto-attendant or voicemail script makes for the most professional sounding messages, and the best user experience for your callers.

Flashpoint Studios offers a free script review on any project we provide professional voiceover for. If you’d like your organization to sound as professional as possible, let us assist you with a professional voice and over 10 years of voicemail greeting and auto-attendant copywriting expertise. Check our Voicemail Greetings information, or contact us at 1-877-FLASHPT (1-877-352-7478).