The Ultimate Business Phone Checklist: Voicemail, Menus, and VoIP Done Right

Just like the previous post about how email is important for your business to communicate with your customers, the phone is also just as important to help your business grow. It can also kill your business. Let’s talk about it.

Phone, History

They have changed over the years. They went from party lines to dedicated lines, to smartphones, to VoIP, and much more.

As phones have evolved, they’ve made running a business much easier. You can answer the phone while you are in a different State, a different country, basically anywhere you are, as long as you have service.

You don’t have to depend on a voice answering device with a tape or digital storage. You could only get your messages if you were at the place of business.

But that is not what I want to talk about in this post.

Business Use

You need a phone, plain and simple. However, you need to make sure that you do the following:

Have a great VM.
Clear your voicemail
Make sure the number is active
Please make sure it is different from your personal number.

Yes, you have to do the following:

Let’s break it down.

Voicemail

Please, for the love of Pete’s sake, have a good professional voice message. This is a must. This conveys how professional you are.

If you are rapping the message,
If you are rude
If you aren’t professional
Don’t make it longer than it should be
- Don’t do a five-minute intro.
Don’t try to cram everything in really quick

This needs to have the following, in my opinion:

Information about your business
- Like the name of it
Nice, pleasant message that is clear and concise
Make it slow but bearable.

If you need a menu, please keep it simple.

Sales
Accounting
Operator
Dial by name
Hours and Directions

That is it, nothing more.

Clear your messages.

You can get business if your voicemail is full. You don’t need to save messages from last year. Keep it clean so potential customers can leave you a message.

Number is active

If you need to change your number, that is fine. But, please, for the love of all things phone. Please update your phone number on your website. Anywhere you might have added it. I know it could be hard since there are a lot of places you could have added the phone number.

Please update the website and your email signature. This is a must to keep your customers reaching out to you.

Different than your personal number

Many people use their personal number, which is not ideal. You never know who is calling. It could be your buddy, and if you answer like “YO, YO, homey,” it could turn out to be a customer.

You can get a second phone, but that costs a lot.

You can use a different phone number, like Google Voice. Just make sure you can tell the difference when the calls come in. You can forward it to your cell phone, but make sure you can tell the difference.

You can get a VoIP system. Yes, it costs extra, but it is useful. If you would like me to do a blog post on this, just let me know.

My Thoughts

Of course,, I have some thoughts on this. In my years of working in tech and working with customers, I have come across a lot of stuff.

Yes, I have had someone rapping their business voicemail. It was numerous, and I did remember it. But, in my opinion,n it wasn’t very professional. Personal message, yeah, go for it.

I have had voicemails that were just rude. The tone was like, what the heck. Didn’t sound like they really wanted to talk to you.

I have had VM go on and on and on. Then once you can leave a message, the mailbox is full. Yea.

If you are doing a menu, please don’t list all the extensions you have. Like

Bill is 1
Mary is 2
Joe is 22
Beth is 45

That means you had to sit through 45 people’s extensions.

This has happened to me. It isn’t nice.

I don’t need to listen to all that crap. If you are doing a dial-by-name, then you can do it better. Just make sure your database is up to date.

I have come across VMs that, well, give you options, but not an option to reach the operator or leave a message. That is the whole point of a phone: to leave a message.

If you say you will call someone back, do it!! Nothing says I don’t give a crap about you like not getting back to you.

I have heard it all. I could go on and on, but I won’t.

Google Voice is a great option to have another number; I have one, and I use it all the time. However, I do get a lot of spam calls. Don’t get me started on the spam calls.

Just keep it simple and professional.

Check out the YouTube video for more samples.