1. Set up your personal voicemail box properly:

a. Create an informative personal greeting or greetings.

Your personal greeting should be informative and helpful to callers, providing information regarding your availability and giving them instructions on how to quickly leave you a message or how to reach a live person. Neither the default system greeting:
    "Please leave a message for: Rick Waldrip extension 222"
nor a personal greeting such as:
    "Hi, this is Rick. Leave me a message"
accomplishes any of these goals. Refer to your user guides to create and record a more informative and useful greeting such as:
    "Hi, this is Rick. I am currently out of the office on customer appointments. To leave me a message, simply wait for the tone or press 1 now to skip the remainder of my message. Or, to reach the receptionist, press zero. Thanks for calling."

Most systems also support multiple personal greetings. This allows you to have several greetings pre-recorded and select which one plays depending upon your availability.

b) Give your callers options and an out so they don't feel controlled or trapped.

As demonstrated above, when recording your greeting, always tell callers how they can reach a live body, or how they can reach you in person. Options include pressing zero for the operator, dialing a co-worker's extension number, or pressing a predetermined digit to reach you on your cell phone.

c) Create your name recording recording properly.

This recording is inserted by the voicemail system into phrases, so it is important to record only your full name, such as "Rick Waldrip."

Otherwise, people might hear phrases such as "Message 1, from Hi this is Rick, recorded today at...."

d) Pay Attention to Acoustics.

Make sure your greetings and other recordings sound good. Don't make recordings in a noisy area, and don't use a speakerphone when recording.

e) Be yourself.

When making recordings, try to sound natural be enthusiastic. Often, if you smile while you are recording, callers can hear it and you sound more positive and friendly.

2. Receive Your Messages Efficiently

a) Learn how to access your voicemail box from anywhere.

Refer to your user guide to learn how to access your voicemail box from outside the office and from other extensions at your office. Once your access your voicemail box, you can perform all functions, just as though you were sitting right at your desk in your office.

b) Familiarize yourself with useful features of your voicemail system, such as message undelete, message scan, rewind, and fast-forward.

Most voicemail systems possess useful features that can assist you in efficiently listening to your messages. Refer to your user guide and practice using these features.

c) Scan your messages.

This is especially useful if you receive many new messages on a regular basis. Skipping to the beginning of each new message allows you to quickly identify which messages need to be handled first due to urgency or source (customers, outside callers, the boss). Also, certain voice messages later in the queue might make earlier ones obsolete (the equivalent of a verbal "never mind").

3. Record Useful and Effective Messages for Others

a) Determine that voice mail is the best medium to use.

Voicemail is often the simplest and best medium for communication, but not always. Sometimes, written communication, a real-time phone call, or face-to-face meeting are more appropriate. Criteria to be considered when deciding which medium to use include the length of the message, its information content, the level of detail, urgency, confidentiality, and referenceability.

b) Get to the point, keep it direct, don't repeat yourself, and don't ramble.

Voicemail messages should be to the point. Oftentimes, one of the benefits of voicemail over live phone calls or face-to-face communications is that no small talk is expected. A ten-second phone call would seem curt and rude to many people, while a ten-second voicemail message is welcome and appreciated. You never need to repeat yourself on voicemail messages. If the recipient of your message wants to hear you again, they can rewind or replay the message.

c) Minimize distracting mannerisms such as "uh", "um", and "you know."

These filters call attention to themselves and detract from your message. Instead, practice pausing quietly between words or thoughts (or stopping the record mode). On most voicemail systems, long intervals of silence are automatically erased.

d) Beware of stuffing too much information into one message.

New users will often include dissimilar pieces of information or multiple topics, requests, or reminders in one long voice message. This is especially confusing for the receiver if the message content is varied (some requires action, some requires response, and some is simply an FYI). Stick to one topic per message if you can; at most, two to three. This makes message handling and responding easier.

e) Break the answering machine habit of announcing the date and time in your voice messages.

Date and time stamps are integral to voice mail systems, so providing this information is not necessary. If receivers need the date and time information, they can access it easily while listening to your message. For subscriber-to-subscriber messaging, you don't even need to do a self-introduction with your message, However, this habit seems difficult and is perhaps unnatural to break.

4. Use Voicemail to Maximize Internal Communication

a) Determine that voice mail is the best medium to use.

Voicemail can often be the best medium for internal company communications. It has many advantages over email, written memos, live phone conversations, and face-to-face meetings. Voicemail messages can be sent and received 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world with no special equipment requirements other than a telephone. Many small but important bits of information that may not seem to justify writing a memo or calling a meeting can be easily sent via voicemail.

b) Send voice mail messages to multiple parties.

Most voicemail systems allow messages to be sent or forwarded to multiple parties. Most systems also allow creation of personal mailing or distribution lists so that messages can be quickly sent to groups of people to whom you frequently send messages. Here are some examples:

"This message is going to everyone in the sales department. I just want to let you know about the specials we will be running for the month of January...."

"I'm sending this message to Sally with a copy to Linda and Bob as an FYI. Sally, I need you to generate a report for the Stevens account...."

"This is message is going to all employees. I had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Brown at Brown Enterprises today and he expressed delight in his dealings with many of you in the past months...."

"To all employees, just a reminder that our spring picnic is this weekend...."

c) Add introductory comments when forwarding a message to another voice mail user.

This "frames" the forwarded message, providing more information and a context for the new receiver. Without an introduction, the receiver may misinterpret the message. When forwarding messages (especially on systems where you can forward a message multiple times), say: "I'm attaching a message from so-and-so,,,." This gives the receiver a sense of where the message has been and what's been said, and prepares the receiver to handle the information.

d) When carbon or courtesy copying a message, clearly state to whom the message is being sent.

Without this information, receivers often unknowingly forward your message to others already on the list. If you're sending a message to more than one person, preface your message by saying: "This message is being sent to Jackie, Ray, Larry, and Louise." Don't forget to actually send the message to everyone you've announced it's going to.

e) When responding to a message, do not assume the receiver knows exactly which voice message you're referring to.

Introduce your response with an opener, such as "Hi, Jim. Responding to your message regarding the Blake account...."

f) Refrain from tracking a person down to tell them you left them a voice message regarding such and such.

If you get into this habit and end up repeating the entire message, you're defeating the purpose of voicemail.