What is a greeting message?

What a greeting message is, and why it matters

A greeting message (in English a Greeting or Announcement) is an audio file that the PBX plays to the caller. Usually it is the first thing the caller hears after the ring: "Hello, you've reached...". But the term is broader — any recording the PBX plays at any point along the way is a "message": an after-hours message, a message while waiting, a voicemail greeting, a holiday message.

The caller can't see your office, your sign or your website. On the phone, the voice is everything. A clear, calm message tells them "you've reached an organized place." A stumbling message, with background noise or with business hours from two years ago, says the opposite, before anyone has even answered.

It's important to distinguish a message from an IVR menu. A message only plays and moves the caller on. A menu plays and then waits for a key press. In practice, the greeting message is usually the first part of the menu, so everything written here also applies to menu scripts.

Where messages play during a call

• Opening — a greeting and the organization's name, before the menu or before transferring to an agent.
• After hours — played according to time-based routing, in the evening, on Shabbat and on holidays.
• While waiting in a queue — messages mixed in between segments of music on hold, and a message about the position in the queue.
• Voicemail greeting — "You've reached the voicemail box of...", before the beep (see voicemail).
• Temporary message — for a holiday, a special closure, a campaign night, an outage.
• Information line — a message that is the content itself: opening hours, address, instructions, information about a class.

Each such point is a separate file. The advantage: you can replace one without touching the others. The drawback: it's easy to forget one. A "Happy holiday" message left on until the middle of winter is a very familiar mistake.

Sample scripts

The following scripts are a starting point. Replace the names and hours, and shorten as much as you can.

Regular opening: "Hello, you've reached the nonprofit's offices. For donations, press 1. For receipts and confirmations, press 2. For anything else, press 0." — the organization's name, and right away the options. No "Welcome" and no "Your call is important to us."

After hours: "Hello, you've reached the store. The store is open Sunday through Thursday, from nine in the morning to seven in the evening, and on Fridays until one. To leave a message, stay on the line, and we'll get back to you on the next business day." — the caller knows when to call back and what they can do now.

Holiday closure: "Hello, the office is closed for the holiday of Sukkot, and will reopen on Sunday. For an urgent matter, press 1 and you'll be transferred to the person on duty. For anything else, leave a message. Happy holiday." — stating the return date saves the caller from guessing.

Queue message: "All agents are busy at the moment. Please stay on the line, and we'll answer you as soon as possible." And in a message that repeats every few minutes: "Thank you for your patience. You can also send us a message, and we'll get back to you." — it's worth varying them, so the person waiting doesn't hear the same sentence ten times.

Yeshiva dormitory during study session (seder): "Hello, you've reached the dormitory. It is currently seder time, and the students cannot be called. Contact hours are from one-thirty to three and from eight to nine in the evening. To leave a message for a student, press 1."

From script to going live — step by step

1. List all the playback points — opening, after hours, queue, voicemail boxes. That way you won't discover a month later that one of them is still in the voice of an employee who left.
2. Write the script on a page and read it aloud with a clock. Every word you can cut — cut.
3. Let someone from outside listen — someone who doesn't know the organization will notice what isn't clear.
4. Record several versions and choose the best. Even professional recorders don't get it right the first time.
5. Upload it and test it with a real call — dial from a mobile phone like a customer, both during business hours and outside them.
6. Set a reminder — once every month or two, call and listen to make sure everything is still correct.

Recording tips

• A quiet room — no noisy air conditioner, no window to the street. A room with books and curtains is better than an empty room with an echo.
• Close to the microphone, but not touching — about twenty centimeters (8 inches). Even a good mobile phone is enough, if the room is quiet.
• A calm pace — slightly slower than normal conversation. Numbers and times are the hardest to catch, so say them slowly.
• A smile in your voice — it sounds odd, but people can hear it.
• One second of silence at the start and end of the file, no more. A long silence at the start makes the caller think no one is on the line.
• A clean file — MP3 or WAV both work. Before uploading, listen to it on a phone, not on computer speakers.

If you record several messages, it is best for the same voice to record all of them. A sudden switch between different voices in the same call feels disorganized. If you want a professional sound, you can use a voice-over artist, but short, clear wording matters more than a polished voice.

Common mistakes

• A long opening — twenty seconds of greetings before the caller hears anything useful.
• An outdated message — old hours, an employee who left, a sale that ended, a holiday greeting in the wrong month.
• A holiday message that was never removed — note in your calendar when to bring back the regular message, or use date-based routing.
• No instruction at the end — the message ends and the caller doesn't know whether to wait, press a key, or hang up.
• Uneven volume — one message is faint and another is shouting. Record in the same place and at the same distance.
• Background music that is too loud — under speech it makes the words hard to understand, especially on a phone.

Script library: seven more situations

The scripts below complete the examples above. All of them are short on purpose, and you can add an organization name and hours to any of them.

Greeting on a personal voicemail box: "You have reached the extension of Rachel in the Collections Department. Leave your name, number, and subject, and I will get back to you by the end of the day."

Campaign line: "Thank you for calling the donations center. All representatives are busy, and we will answer you in order. For a quick donation with no wait, press 2." — Offering a shortcut lowers the load on the queue.

Information line for a gemach: "Hello, you have reached the gemach. Lending is Sunday through Thursday, between eight and ten in the evening, at 12 Rav Kook Street. To return items at other hours, press 1 and you will be connected to the person in charge." — The message is the content, so the address and hours are spoken slowly.

Erev Shabbat and Yom Tov: "Hello, the office is closed for Shabbat. We will resume activity on Motzei Shabbat at nine o'clock. Leave a message and we will get back to you." — A separate message from the regular nighttime closing, so the caller knows when to call back.

Before transferring to a representative: "We are transferring you to a representative. This call may be recorded for service improvement." — One sentence that covers the recording notice.

Temporary outage: "Due to a problem in the ordering system, there may be a delay in answering. We are working on a solution. For urgent problems, press 1." — Record it in advance and turn it on the day of the outage, instead of recording under pressure.

Callback offer in a queue: "So you don't have to wait on the line, press 1 and we will call you back when a representative is free. To keep waiting, stay on the line." — The benefit comes first, then the key.

Recording checklist

The tips above are about how to sound good. This list is about what to check so the file works, in the order you do it:

1. Before: the script is written and approved; someone has read it aloud with a clock; names, hours, and keys are marked in the script so they are said slowly.
2. Environment: air conditioner off, door closed, other phones silenced. Make a ten-second test recording of silence and listen for any hum.
3. Recording: at least three takes. Between takes, drink water and don't talk.
4. After: trim the silence at the start and end to one second; keep the volume even across all the organization's messages; one file for each playback point, with a clear name ("opening-business-hours", "closed-holiday"), not "recording3".
5. Format: voice on a phone is reduced to phone quality anyway, so a single channel (mono) is enough, and extra-high quality won't be heard. What does matter: no heavy compression, which adds noise.
6. Phone test: after uploading, call from a mobile phone and hear the message in a real call. Computer speakers hide problems that the phone reveals.
7. Documentation: save the script and the original file in a shared folder. A year from now, when you need to change one hour, you won't start from zero.

A habit that saves a lot: in the same session, also record the holiday and emergency versions, even if you don't need them now. Same voice, same room, same volume, and when needed you just swap a file.

Studio, voice-over artist, or self-recording?

The practical rule: the opening menu is heard by every caller, so it is the one to give to a voice-over artist. Personal voicemail boxes are better in the voice of the extension owner, because the caller wants to hear that they reached a person. Temporary messages, such as a holiday or an outage, must be easy to change, so record them yourselves.

If you do choose a voice-over artist, ask them to also record a stock of sentences for the future: names of months, times, "closed in honor of," "we will be back on." That way you can assemble a new holiday message without placing a new order. And always ask for the separate files, not only the assembled menu.

Messages in several languages

Many organizations receive calls in Hebrew, Yiddish, and English, and sometimes French or Russian as well. There are three common ways to handle this, from the simplest to the most complex:

• One message, two sentences. "Hello, you have reached... For English press 9." The Hebrew-speaking caller doesn't have to wait, and the English speaker gets a key within the first three seconds.
• Language choice at the start of the call. "For Hebrew press 1, for Yiddish 2, for English 3," and each language leads to its own menu. It is orderly, but it adds a step for every caller, so it only suits cases where a large share of callers don't speak Hebrew.
• Language by number. A separate phone number for each audience, for example a local number in New York that leads straight to an English menu. The caller doesn't choose anything.

In all methods, each language is a separate file, and it is best for the same speaker to record all the messages in a given language. One more rule: the follow-up messages, such as "All representatives are busy" or the voicemail greeting, should be in the language the caller chose. A caller who chose English and then hears a queue message in Hebrew feels that the choice wasn't registered.