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What to Do When Leaving a Phone Message

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From Quick Guide: Answering Machine Guide

Summary: Be concise and stay professional when leaving voicemails. Learn how to leave a business voicemail from a communications specialist in this free phone etiquette video.

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By Tracy Goodwin
eHow Presenter

Tracy Goodwin has a master’s in corporate communication and 10 years experience in professional speaking. Recipient of numerous public speaking awards and is a college professor of...read more

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Video Transcript

"All right, now we're ready to talk about leaving a message on the voicemail. Now, I'm going to separate this in between, between do's and don’ts, and first we're going to talk about the do's. Again, just like with your personal greeting, you want to plan out your message. Think about what it is that you have to say, or want to say, or need to say; otherwise, you'll be kind of floundering all around. You want to be concise and to the point, so plan it out. Leave your message simple. Voicemail is about simple messages usually that don't even require a response. Bob, this is Tim. The meeting will be at four o'clock on Thursday; click. Well actually, you wouldn't say click, you'd say thank you, goodbye, but keep it brief, keep it very simple. Always sound professional. Just because it's voicemail, don't take on some casual demeanor, yo Bob, Tim here. No; again, sound professional. And the last thing that you want to do, and 99.9 percent of office phone systems, and probably cell phones too, allow you to replay your message before you send it to the system, and you really want to do that, because one, you want to see what you said; see what you sound like, but that's also an opportunity where you can make sure you said everything that you need to say in that message before you send it on its way. So those are things you want to do, now let's look at the things you don't want to do."

eHow Article: What to Do When Leaving a Phone Message

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