What’s On Your Voicemail?
Public relations is all about communicating with your target audience, right?
How about when your audience targets you?
Here’s a different take on phone etiquette.
Many years ago – before the internet — we had an out-of-state client that required a lot of phone calls, which now seems so archaic. Because he was a busy guy, we often didn’t reach him when we called. While we liked talking to him personally, it was a treat to get to his voice mail.
Each day he recorded a brief, inspirational message on his voicemail. It was different. It was creative. It was memorable. It put a smile on your face. It was a nice touch to the often mundane “Please leave a message.”
I thought it was such a “signature” for him that I wanted to replicate it without actually copying it.
So, about 10 years ago, I considered using the following for my voicemail message:
- Inspirational messages
- On this date in history
- Famous quotes
- Trivial facts
- Headline of the day
None of those hit home for me. So I decided to begin announcing the birthday of someone “famous to me” on my voicemail. It’s fresh content, as I try to update it each day before I leave.
We don’t get the volume of calls we once did, as e-mail, cell phones and texting have become mainstream communication channels. What we do get every now-and-then, are callers who DON’T want to talk to me. They just want to hear my voicemail. And some of them call on the same day each year!
It’s my small way of recognizing people famous to me at least once a year. Keep calling! (602) 957-8881.
