What Is a Good Personal Greeting for a Cell Phone?

By Jean Marie Bauhaus

Updated June 25, 2018

What Is a Good Personal Greeting for a Cell Phone?
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It's tempting to view a cell phone voice mail greeting as a chance for personal expression or to showcase your personality or favorite joke or song. However, you never know when a caller might be an important contact who isn't impressed by your brand of personal expression. An off-putting voice mail greeting can kill your chances of making meaningful connections. There are some strategies to ensure your voice mail greeting will leave a good impression, no matter who is calling.

Clear, Concise Greeting

A good cell phone voice mail greeting is clear, courteous and to the point. Enunciate, don't mumble, to make it as easy as possible for those with poor hearing or bad connections to be able to hear your greeting. Be polite, and save swearing for the conversation, if applicable. A potential employer or college recruiter isn't likely to be impressed if they're greeted with profanity when they call.

Callers in general don't like to sit through a long greeting before they can leave their message. A greeting shouldn't be so long that they might forget what they were calling to say. Most callers are also savvy enough that they don't need detailed instructions on what information to leave. For example, prompt your callers to leave their name, contact information and a good time to call back. All they really need is confirmation that they've called the correct number and are leaving their message with the right person.

Make it simple for callers. Design your greeting with your first name, the phone number they're calling and a friendly reminder. The greeting you choose and your tone of voice will do plenty to convey your personality and add a personal touch.

If in doubt, here is a simple script you can follow to ensure that your greeting does what it needs to do while being friendly and polite: "Hello. You've reached Jane. I'm not available right now. Leave me your name, phone number and a good time to call you back. I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Have a great day."

Phone scripts are useful ways to ensure your callers reached the correct person. You can also use this phone script: "Hi there. This is Jack's phone, and I'm sorry to miss your call. Leave me your name, your contact information and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Cheers."

Showcase Professionalism

Whether it’s a prospective job interview or a personal friend trying to reach you, the greeting on your phone displays your personality. Make it fun and professional. An excellent way to ensure your welcome message shows your best part of your character is to select a time of day you feel energize and positive. While practice makes perfect, develop different greetings that showcase your professional and friendly personality. Sometimes it may take a few tries until you’re comfortable with the best selection.

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