VoiceMail has many benefits and advantages when used properly. However, you should not hide behind voicemail. If callers constantly reach your voicemail instead of you, they will suspect that you are avoiding calls. Here are a few tips on such things as greetings and responding to voicemail.

Voicemail Greeting

Be sure to record your own personal greeting; don't use the standard default greeting or have another person record your greeting. People tend to feel that they have already lost the personal communication touch because of voicemail. If a female voice says that "Joe Smith is not available", the caller will not be convinced that you listen to your voicemail.

Write down what you want to say in your greeting and practice saying it a few times before recording. Even if the greeting sounds like you are reading it, it will ensure that you don't spend as much time trying to record it "just right."

Include in your greeting your name and department so that people know they have reached the correct person.

Your regular greeting should include your normal work hours. If you know that you will be on vacation for a few days or leaving the office early or have different hours temporarily, you should record an alternate greeting to let callers know this. Callers will know that they cannot expect a callback for a few hours or a few days.

Use the attendant feature! This feature allows the caller to reach another person in your department from your voicemail. For example, if you were out of the office on a Thursday and a caller needed an answer immediately, the caller could dial 03 while listening to your voicemail message and be transferred to someone else in your department. You have to select an attendant yourself - it is NOT done automatically. Try to select someone who would know your schedule and be able to take messages for you-such as a receptionist or assistant. To find out how to select an attendant, see the Voicemail Guide which is available at the Telephone Services website: http://www.fullerton.edu/it/phone

If your phone is the main department extension, you might want to consider playing an alternate greeting when you are closed.

If your message is rather long, you might consider informing callers of the option to press 5 to bypass your message and to start recording their message to you.

If you turn on the paging feature (you will be paged when a message is marked urgent), make sure to mention that in your message. Callers leave a message and then press 4 to mark the message urgent. You will be paged with 2525 to let you know that you have an urgent voicemail. To set up the paging feature, contact Telephone Services.

When you leave for the day or will be away from your desk for an extended period of time, forward your line to your voicemail using the call forward feature as a courtesy to your callers. Call forwarding means that your callers don't have to wait through an entire ring cycle (12 seconds/3 rings) before leaving a voicemail message for you.


Checking Messages and Returning Calls

Check your messages daily and return messages within 24 hours. If it will take longer than 24 hours, call the person and advise him/her. Callers should feel comfortable that you are checking your voicemail daily.

Reply, forward, or delete messages immediately. Keep your mailbox clean. Saved messages kept longer than a week take up needless space in your mailbox since you are only allowed 20 messages total in your mailbox, including saved messages.

If you forward a message, be sure to explain to the person to whom you are forwarding the message why you are sending it to them.

Leaving a Voicemail Message for Another Person

Speak clearly and slowly.

Be sure to leave your name and extension number. It's best to say it at the beginning and end of your message.

Keep messages short and to the point.

Remember that you want to leave the person you are calling with a good impression of you.

Leave the date and time you called in the message. Let the person know the best time to call you back.

Cover one topic in one message; specify what you want the recipient to do.