Make-Up Tips & Beauty Advice

In 1997 seventy-five percent of all telephone calls terminated in voice mail. What do you figure the numbers are today? You can be frustrated by the voice mail maze, or you can use it to your advantage. Consider adopting these habits:

Always leave a message – always:  In addition to voice mail many people today have Caller ID. If you don’t leave a message they’ll wonder what you had to hide. When you get voice mail leave a message. I say “Hello, my name is Wendy Kinney. Toby Lynn heard you speak at the Georgian Club and suggested that you would be an excellent speaker for our monthly PowerBreakfast meeting. Are you available May 8th?”

Tell why you called:  To leave a message with your name and phone number and then say “Call me.” is the same, business etiquette expert Letitia Baldrige explains, as writing a letter that says “Write back to me, and I’ll tell you why I wrote this letter.”  Sounds silly, doesn’t it. So don’t do it. Instead, say “Jeff Jones asked  me to give you a call about your computer system. I’m his computer network expert.”

Re-play the message, and re-record it if you need to:  One big advantage of voice mail over answering machines is that you, the caller, have the option of listening to your message to hear how professional you sounded. Always take this option. If your voice was hesitant, or you spoke too quickly, if you cleared your throat or repeated yourself, hit the delete key and re-record a message that would make you want to return your call.

Voice mail is a fact of business – use it to your advantage.