Phone prompt messages – a guide to create them

This is how you create a professional phone prompt message for companies

The first impression is important – especially when it comes down to a company and a potential customer. Here, it can have direct influence on a potential sale or communicating a certain message.

Even though recordings and communication tasks are different, they all have one thing in common: contributing to branding your company and products/services. This is why it does matter, how your company’s phone prompt messages sound.

In this blogpost, we will try to help you create a professional phone prompt message, so that your company is showing itself on-brand and conveys a professional impression, in case existing or potential customers reach out. Among other things, we will touch upon the welcome message, a customer will hear out of office hours and explain how you record a professional phone prompt message in the best way possible.

All starts with a welcome message

A welcome message on the main line is the first, a person hears, and this is where the customer should feel welcomed and get the confirmation, they called the correct place. The phone prompt message should be professional, concise, and easy to understand.

An example would be:

“Welcome to VoiceArchive, please hold”, after which there is a waiting tone or waiting music.

Nowadays, there are also many companies that need to transfer customers to the correct department. In these situations, a professional phone prompt message could be:

“Welcome to VoiceArchive. To make sure we can help you in the best possible way, please choose one of the following options”, after which the customer can choose which service they need.

We would not recommend using phone prompt messages during office hours that do not have the purpose to send customers to the correct department. Usually, there won’t be a customer leaving a voice message which would cause you to miss out on a potential sale. This could be seen as bad customer service or a lack of interest in customers.

It is very rare that customers call for no reason and if they have called during the weekend, it is because they need your help. In case they call out of office hours, it is important to inform them about when they can call again. A professional phone prompt message could be:

“Welcome to VoiceArchive. You have called us out of our office hours. We are open from Monday to Friday between 8.30 and 16.00.”

Your professional phone prompt message should mainly inform customers about them calling out of office hours, during lunch break or the like. Afterwards, you should communicate when your opening hours are.

You should not communicate your email address. If they would have wanted to write, they would have looked for that instead of a phone number.

Also remember to have phone prompt messages ready for holidays and public holidays.

Yes, of course you can. You should though be sure that you are in control of the technical setup and that you have a voice that you would connect with your company’s identity. This is because it is important which sound you choose for your professional phone prompt message.

Should it be a male or a female voice, should the tone be formal or informal? The phone voice is supposed to reflect your culture, values, and identity. This is why consider elements such as dialect, tone of voice and pace and how this will influence the first impression a customer gets.

How you record a professional phone prompt message

1. Your recording should be short, clear, and only include the most important information.
2. Name and company name should be pronounced clearly, so that clients are in no doubt of who they have called.
3. Drop you pre-recorded messages, where you only are supposed to say a name, especially when you are a company. This can seem impersonal.
4. Write a script to be sure to get everything included and practice. Get others to listen in to make sure all important information is there.
5. In case customers can leave voice messages, you should be listening to them before calling the customer back.
6. Remember the nice tone. Get your hands on a good microphone and be somewhere without background noise.
7. Choose the right voice. The voice has a big importance for the impression, and you should match it to your customer base.