A hosted VoIP service gives your business access to a long list of calling features like auto attendants, business hour rules, voicemail to email, and call queues. One of those features is announcements.
While not as flashy (looking at you, CCaaS dashboards) or trendy (...and you, website chat bots) as other VoIP features, announcements are a versatile one that can be used in nearly every calling situation.
What Is an Announcement?
An announcement is simply a pre-recorded message that plays to a caller once he reaches a specific point in your phone system. After the message is played, the caller is sent to a pre-selected destination of your choice. For example, you can have an announcement played to a caller before he enters your sales or support call queue.
Simple, right? That doesn’t mean it’s not useful, though! Here are some example business announcement scripts illustrating how you can use them when customers call your company.
New Business Announcement Sample Scripts: How to Use Them
Provide Your Company’s Hours of Operation and Location
Do your call agents spend much time answering callers’ questions about your location and hours of operation? An announcement is a smart way to provide that information to callers without taking up your agents’ valuable time.
Record an announcement and set it as an option on your business’s main auto attendant menu—“Press 9 for our location and hours of operation.” When a caller presses 9, she will hear the announcement message and get that info without speaking with an agent.
“Pets Love Veterinary office is located at 9876 Main Street, Anytown, U.S.A. We are right across the street from Macy’s. We’re open Mondays through Thursdays from 8:30 AM to 7 PM, Fridays from 8:30 AM to 5 PM, and Saturdays from 9 AM to 1 PM.”
Announce Upcoming Closures for Holidays or Severe Weather Events
If your office will be closed for an upcoming holiday, or if a bout of severe weather forces you to shut down for a few days, use an announcement to inform your callers of this. The message can play to callers when they dial your main line; after it plays through, they can be sent on to your business’s attendant menu.
“Hello! Thank you for calling Pets Love Veterinary office. With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, our office will be closing early on Wednesday. Wednesday’s hours are 8:30 AM to 1 PM. We will be closed on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Our normal business hours will resume on Monday.”
Inform Callers of Longer-than-Average Wait Times
You work hard to keep your call hold times down, but sometimes, things happen that lead to a rush of callers and long wait times. In those instances, add an announcement before callers reach your customer support queue. Have the announcement briefly mention the longer-than-average hold times—you’ll be forthright with your callers and maybe get a few people who don’t have pressing issues to call back at a later time.
“We’re experiencing longer than average hold times right now. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please remain on the line and one of our support representatives will be happy to address your question or issue."
Notify Callers of Network Event Status
Service downtimes and network event issues are never good for your company. The best thing to do (besides resolving the issue as fast as possible) is to be transparent with your customers.
You can utilize announcements in this situation, too. Record an announcement that your engineers are working on fixing the network issue, and add it before your support call queue, like in the previous example. Customers who call in to speak with support will hear the message before joining the queue. In addition to being honest with your clientele, it may get a few callers to hang up and await further updates.
“We are experiencing a network issue in our Los Angeles data center. Network engineers are on site and working on resolving the problem. We are posting real-time updates to keep you informed on our Network Status webpage: www.yourcompany.com/networkstatus. Otherwise, please hold to speak with the next available representative.”
Tell Potential Customers of Limited-Time Promotions or Current Sales
If your company is running a sign-up promotion or offering any sales, mention it to callers before they reach your sales queue. State the details of the sale when you’re recording your announcement, and then set up the message in the same way as the above support queue examples.
“We’re running a sign-up promotion for new customers from now until December 31! When your business signs up for our Unlimited Calling Plan, we’ll provide a free deskphone for each of your employees. Ask your sales representative for more details!”
Business Announcement: A Smart Way to Keep Callers in the Loop
These examples are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using an announcement in your company’s phone system. And for times when you can’t answer a call, follow these business voicemail greeting tips and best practices to keep your away message on point.