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 I listened to the voicemail cast a while back and began updating my voicemail weekly.  I'm fast enough at it now to want to do it daily.  Mark made mention of leaving one in the morning when you get in and one when you leave for the day.  Being a detailed person, what would the end of day voicemail message sound like?  I'm having trouble with what the most professional way to say it.  Is "I've left for the day.  Leave a message and I'll contact you tomorrow." good enough?

tlhausmann's picture
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Hmmm. In my view, taking time to have a custom voice greeting for the overnight hours is overkill.  I too am a fan of the voice mail podcast...and update my greeting at the beginning of each week.  My standard greeting includes mobile phone information for urgent matters.

jrosenau's picture

Thanks for the thought.  I will probably stick with weekly.  I did just download the resume workbook and they actually have a great example of a daily message in there. 

John

Solitaire's picture

I used to change my voicemails daily when I worked in a fragmented team and was in meetings a lot.

Examples of messages I used included:

"You've reached the voicemail of INSERT NAME on 1st January. I will be in meetings today from 10am to 11am and 2pm to 4pm. You can contact XYZ person or team on 12345 number (REPEAT number) for urgent enquiries. Alternatively please leave me a message and I will get back to you on my return." 

"You've reached the voicemail of INSERT NAME on 1st January. I will unavailable all morning in an off-site meeting, returning to my desk at 1pm. You can contact XYZ person or team on 12345 number (REPEAT number) for urgent enquiries. Alternatively please leave me a message and I will get back to you on my return."

"You've reached the voicemail of INSERT NAME on 1st January. I am now on annual leave, returning to the office on 6th January. You can contact XYZ person or team on 12345 number (REPEAT number) for urgent enquiries. Alternatively please leave me a message and I will get back to you on my return."

To any of these, if I was available on my mobile I would add "Please call my mobile 12345 (REPEAT) and leave me a message, so I can come back to you more quickly." (before leading into the alternatively leave me a message).

Now I work in a much smaller office and receive far fewer calls, so telling colleagues where I am is sufficient as they will answer my phone for me. So now my message is much simpler and only updated if I am away for the day or longer:

"You've reached the voicemail of INSERT NAME. I am not available to take your call right now. Please contact my team on 12345 number (REPEAT number) for urgent enquiries. Alternatively please leave me a message and I will call you back on my return."

The more you do this the easier it becomes, especially if you stick to a similar format each time.

- Solitaire

jrosenau's picture

 Great Examples!