From the course: Time Management Tips

How to leave an effective voicemail message

From the course: Time Management Tips

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How to leave an effective voicemail message

- Not everyone uses voicemail. However if you're working with someone or communicating with someone who uses voicemail, it's important to leave messages in a productive way. By productive, I mean the message helps you communicate more clearly and helps the other person take action. Often, people leave vague voicemail messages. Hi, this is Dave, give me a call back. That may work for a best friend, or a close family member, but it's not productive in a work environment. When you leave a voicemail message, think in terms of answering four questions. Who? Why? When? And what? Who of course is who you are, in most cases that means leaving your full name. Why? Because unless you have a very unique name, it's possible that the other person communicates with lots of Daves. They need to know which Dave is leaving a message. Next, is why. Explain to them the reason for the call and be specific about it. Avoid general statements like, I need to talk to you about something. Not only does this not help the other person understand how to prioritize the message, but it can cause anxiety. State something specific like, I'd like to talk to you about the report that's due next week. There are a few minor corrections we need to make. Next is when. When simply indicates by when they should get back to you. You could say something like, could you get back to me by the end of today? Or by the end of the work day tomorrow? What is what action you want them to take. In most cases it's going to be a call back. If so, you'll want to clearly leave your phone number, or if they don't need to call you back, be specific about what action you'd like them to take, such as sending you an email, or a text message. This leads to my final tip, many voicemail systems now provide a very productive tool in the form of transcription. This allows the other person to read your message faster than they could listen to it. Because of that, be careful about your diction, and your rate of speech. This means speaking a little bit slower than you would normally speak and speaking with clearer pronunciation. This applies especially if you leave your phone number. Often, we're used to saying things quickly. We don't realize that the voicemail recipient will be reading what some complex algorithm determined we were saying. Voicemail can save us time, provided we use it in a productive way.

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