Build the Business of Your Dreams
By Brett Kelly, on Monday, November 12th, 2007

I have a handful of friends who, despite numerous pleas and death threats, refuse to carry their cell phone with them. They’re perfectly willing to leave it in the car while out somewhere, or leave it in their bedroom while watching television in the living room. Personally, these are stack-blowing, what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you-types of behavior, but that’s another rant for another blog post.
So, as you can imagine, I generally get sent to voicemail when calling said friends on their cell phones. Now, granted, I’m not usually calling to tell them their house is on fire or that I just scored the Def Lepard tickets they had been frothing over. But I would like to talk to them about something. The phone will ring a few times and then I’ll hear something like this:
“Hello, this is [name]. I’m not able to get to my phone right now, but please leave a message and I’ll call you back as soon as I can. Thanks! *BEEP*”.
I don’t know how or when this type of message “format” was enshrined as the standard, but this is pretty close to most voicemail messages you’ll hear. I find this to be pretty freakin’ annoying, so I’ve put together this little list of rules for creating your outgoing message on either your cell phone or office phone voicemail.
Now, using the analogy of my friend’s message from above and removing all of the elements in the above list, guess what we’re left with? That’s right – only his name. And if you think about it, that’s all I really care about for the most part. I’m pretty sure I know who I’m calling, so if I get sent to voicemail, it should confirm that I am indeed calling who I intended.
Some other more esoteric things to keep in mind:
So, just to recap. Your voicemail message should include:
1. Your Name
2. Job Title (only if it must be there)
2. Phone Number (optional)
3. Why you won’t be answering the phone or checking your voicemail for N days (if applicable).
That’s it, folks.
And just to show you (or, at least, attempt to convince you) that I’m eating my own dog food here, my voicemail message is (as I sit here):
“Brett Kelly. [phone number]“
Technorati Tags: phones, voicemail, productivity, cell phones, work
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