How you leave a message is important!

When leaving messages, have mercy on your listeners and do the following:

• Speak slowly and leave your phone number at the beginning and the end of the message.
• Limit your comments to one or two subjects.  Voicemail is not a one-person show.
• If you are rambling, for the sake of others and your reputation, stop yourself and rerecord.
• If you need action of some sort, state what you need.  Voicemails that simply say, “call me” are irritating at best.
• If the recipient of your messages tends to fall into the trap listed in the previous point, tell him or her, “When you return my call, please leave a message on my voicemail to let me know the status of the project if I’m not able to pick up the phone.”
• If you are using a group distribution list that lists everyone’s name on the message, read the manual for your phone system and put the list at the end.  If people want to listen to it they can.

The onset of technology has changed the way we do business but some common sense rules still apply when it comes to etiquette. The following tips may be a reminder of what we think in common sense, however could also save you from some embarrassing situations.

General Messaging Etiquette

Messages over voicemail should be concise and to the point. No one wants to listen or read a long-winded message. In the case of email, if the recipient has to scroll down several pages it is very likely they will file to read later and not get back to your message for days. Keep it short and easy to read.

Make sure those you are copying on voice, need to be copied. In a time when some people receive dozens of voicemails a day, decide whether or not it is necessary before you copy someone.

Voicemail

• Speak clearly and slowly and leave your name and telephone number twice if the person doesn't know you well.
• State the reason for your call and make your message concise and to the point.
• Don't leave a message from a speaker phone. Your message may not come through clearly.

Final telephone hints


Whether leaving a voicemail message to set up a networking meeting or to follow up on the process of a job vacancy, keep the following tips in mind before making the call.


• Be prepared - know what you want to achieve - have a pen and paper handy.

• Smile when you speak and try not to speak too quickly or too slowly, speak clearly.

• Use your first and last name to introduce yourself. Use the first name of the person you are calling only if they offer, otherwise use Mr. or Ms.

• Be confident and positive, genuinely interested and enthusiastic.

• Avoid saying anything negative about your previous employers.

• If calling from home, remember to turn the TV and radio off and secure yourself away from any obvious distractions or background noise.

• While job searching, do not have a cute message on your outgoing voicemail message at home, including your kids voices, music in the background, etc. should a potential employer call you to set up an interview.

It is what and how you say it . . .

Yes, people do still make telephone calls. They probably shouldn't, but they do. Here are some rules -- some new and some of long standing for dealing with the perils of voicemail.

Brevity is key. The average person can read a message at least three times faster than you can speak it, so most listeners find every second they spend listening to voicemail agonizingly tedious. One commonly cited maximum tolerable length for a voicemail message is 30 seconds.

Simplicity swings both ways. Having a short outgoing message is a simple but extremely important to avoid angering your callers. Don't fill your outgoing message with alternate phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Instead offer callers one alternative means of reaching you (either a cell phone number or an e-mail address, usually). If someone urgently needs to track you down, they will find you. If possible, let the caller know of another person in the office who they may contact.

Use the technology available. Most voicemail systems permit you to erase or otherwise "do over" a botched message. Don't be shy about punching the pound key (#) if you forgot to leave your area code or if you misspelled your e-mail address the first time around. Press the correct button (it's usually #) to access those "more options" that you normally don't inquire into, and you can leave a professional message sans flubs.

In recording your message, remember:

• Identify your name, organization, and telephone number in your outgoing message.
• State that you are not available and any other important information.
• Tell people how to leave an appropriate message.  That’s right, if you want good information, ask for it.
• If you prefer email, offer that as an option to callers.  If you have an unusual name or company name, spell out the email address.
• To cut down on repeat calls if you work in a high-volume call area, state that you will return calls within 24 hours or whatever time period your organization’s policy on return calls requires.
• If you update your message when you go out of town, don’t forget to update it again when you get back.
•  If your system allows callers to bypass your message by hitting the pound key, tell them that, especially if you have an unusually long message.

All the Comforts of Home. All the Productivity of the Office.

With the escalating price of office space coupled with the rising cost for transportation and parking, businesses are looking for ways to minimize space and reduce commuter impact. The concept of working at home or in satellite offices has become a viable solution to address these demands. Many companies both large and small are eliminating or, at the least, cutting down on such expenses by extending their offices to suburbs and employee home offices.

One of the ways of achieving this goal is NEC's remote telephony solutions; providing access for remote offices and employee home offices, with little or no difference in the services provided to callers. The flexible home office has been proven to promote employee retention and allows for employees to apply commuter time to more productive work for their organization. Here are some examples:

• Remote employees can be added on-demand to their company's call centers to take calls during peak hours, when a special promotion or event is going on to generate higher call volumes than normal, or even during lunch breaks for the on-site call consultants.

• Remote offices can be located in other cities and time zones to take calls after other offices have closed for the day. One location can handle calls for the entire company after hours for repair, service or other problems. These remote offices can mean access to lower cost of living communities and can tap areas of the country that have qualified employees with lower salary requirements, while simultaneously containing office expenses.

NEC is constantly developing their Private Branch eXchanges (PBX) systems to enhance versatile call center and networking applications. The ability to extend the system's reach to remote and home offices over a wide range of technologies translates into the best customer service available.

Contact Atlantic Communications Team for a free consultation on how these and similar telecommunications solutions can be added to increase your productivity and decrease your costs.

Just Say the Word and. . .

In today's highly competitive business environment, effective communication is critical to the success of your business. The more efficiently your business handles its communications, the greater your organization's chance for success and the more effective your messaging becomes. The consequence of slow message returns, misunderstood or lost messages could mean a loss of business. Thus voice mail and messaging are extremely important.

NEC Voice Mail and Messaging Solutions

The NEC Voice Mail and Messaging solutions deliver superior performance, scalability, and reliability to enhance your telecommunications systems. In addition to addressing the needs of corporate enterprise users, these solutions expand to meet the requirements of industries such as healthcare, hospitality, education, finance and government. A wide range of features assures that an effective and economic solution is available for businesses of all sizes.

User Benefits

• Tightly integrated with your system platforms. This customized integration speeds calls to ultimate destinations faster than traditional voice mail systems.

• Employees connect directly to their voice mail to retrieve messages instead of being routed to a main voice mail greeting first.

• Organize and share information with messages being captured live and archived for future reference or forwarded to another mailbox.

• Unified messaging allows users to manage all of their messages from a single interface – any time and in any location, regardless of the type or origin of the message.

The NEC systems are a feature-rich business communications' solution that empowers employees to streamline workloads and share information. With the addition of Unified Messaging, subscribers can manage inbound and outbound calls and messages on screen from any networked PC, including e-mails, with the intuitive and easy-to-use graphical user interface.

The versatile NEC messaging systems provide unique applications that are flexible as well as reliable for all your messaging needs for now and in the future. With NEC's constant development of new products and easy migration path, your company can upgrade as the need arises.

Call or email Atlantic Communications Team for additional information or visit our website to learn about these valuable and necessary features.

Critical Question: Will my telephone system support my communication requirements - today and tomorrow?

Today's fast paced business environment demands that small- and medium-size companies work hard to stay competitive. One advantage smaller businesses have is their ability to react very quickly to changes in the marketplace and respond to their customers. The last thing a growing business usually asks itself is, "Will my telephone system support my communication requirements - today and tomorrow?" Successful future communications begins with the voice/data system you select today.

Businesses that don't expect to stay small forever require a system that can grow with them. A “building block” approach allows for easy cost effective expansion. Buying only what is needed today keeps the system affordable.

Remember when computers and data communications were only for large companies? Today the computer is a fixture in many small businesses and an indispensable business tool. To meet and beat the competition, smaller businesses often drive technology and are willing to explore new methods to save time and money. The architecture of your telephone system must allow for future enhancements.

A Small-to-Medium Business (SMB) communications system should be a complete small business communication platform. This system may be a key telephone system or it may be a server-based all-in-one PBX system. Selecting a specific system requires a total evaluation of your business goals and future direction:

• Voice,

• Data,

• Voice over IP (VoIP),

• Voice mail,

• and call centers;

 are just a few things that need to be considered when selecting an SMB communications system.

Small businesses do not have the luxury of time or a telecom department to support their system. Businesses need to be self-sufficient and cannot turn their system off for adds, moves and changes. A telephone system must allow for on-line changes and maintenance and must get applications running without interrupting business.

An interface card that contains your specific application (in-skin) is more convenient than external equipment. In-Skin cards allow businesses to add functionality as they need it and be assured that the application was designed to work specifically for their telephone system. Examples of In-Skin cards include Voice Mail, Automatic Call Distribution, Conference Bridge and VoIP.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember about SMB systems is that what is difficult to use will go unused. Features are only as good as their ease of use. The brains of the system are often hidden away but the telephone is used everyday.

Want a better understanding o just how a phone system’s features can help your business?  - contact Atlantic Communications Team. We will be happy to explain the various features that are available and how they can help your business.

Telephones that are aesthetically pleasing and ergonomically designed lead to successful deployment of the applications of the system. A large adjustable LCD is useful for displaying caller ID information and other important system information. Softkeys guide users through features without the need to refer to a user guide.

The needs of businesses vary and that is why flexibility in a telephone system is so important. A business should never have to operate because of the way their telephone system operates. Matching the telephone system to unique business applications is the key to success.