Outgoing messages on your voicemail system can be a tremendously valuable tool for communicating with a variety of people — prospective residents, current residents, vendors, central office employees, etc. Here are a few tips and tricks as well as script samples to help make sure your outgoing message is effective. If you are a newer manager to a community, please check to be sure your current message is accurate and update the outgoing message if necessary, or even if not, so that your voice becomes familiar with the residents.
- Make sure your outgoing greeting is clear and easy to understand.
- Volume – Make sure your voice is loud enough for the recorder.
- Speed – Speak slower than you might normally speak.
- Review – Make sure to review the message after you’ve recorded it.
- Always remember that the office telephone is a business telephone line, and that the information provided should be restricted to professional, appropriate business information only.
- Avoid things like ‘theme songs’, political statements or ‘the joke of the day’ when recording your outgoing message.
- When recording a message, remember that though marketing can be aided with a great message, we also have a number of residents who contact the management office for a variety of reasons.
- If your phone message mentions your blow-out free rent specials being offered from now until eternity, don’t be surprised when a current resident wants to know what they need to do to have their rent reduced by half! It is always best to stay just a bit ‘general’ until the actual phone call with a prospective resident.
- Be sensitive about the length of the message.
- Messages which extend for more than 15 to 30 seconds can lose their effectiveness as callers will grow impatient.
- Always record your outgoing message in a cheerful, upbeat tone.
- We all have difficult days. If your message was recorded on one of those days, now is a great opportunity to re-record your message in an upbeat voice.
Cambridge endorses the use of regional mobile phones for afterhours MAINTENANCE emergencies. For this reason, it is MANDATORY that the afterhours emergency number is included on your outgoing voicemail message.
A couple sample messages are noted below.Voicemail Message Script – Sample #1
“You have reached the Happy Trail Apartments! If you are a current resident and you are experiencing a life threating emergency please hang up and dial 911. For other afterhours maintenance emergencies please call the emergency number at 800-555-1234. If you are calling to learn more about our wonderful one and two bedroom apartment homes, please leave us your name and telephone number so we can call you back promptly! Our office is open weekdays from 9am until 6pm and on weekends from 11am until 5pm. We look forward to speaking with you and thank you again for calling Happy Trail Apartments!”
Voicemail Message Script – Sample #2
“Thank you for calling the Happy Trail Apartments! If you are a current resident and you are experiencing a life threating emergency please hang up and dial 911. If you are experiencing a maintenance emergency, please call 800-555-1234. For information regarding our beautiful two and three bedroom apartments, leave your name and telephone number after the tone. We will return your call during our regular business hours which are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Thank you again for calling!”