Robert Brault once said, “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things”. For a business, the “little things” often get lost in the avalanche of “big ones”. For example, this Thanksgiving season, you’ll probably be a lot more enthusiastic about your Black Friday deals than your Thanksgiving voicemail greetings. After all, Black Friday is the “big thing” customers want, right?
Sure! But don’t forget — it’s the “little things” that create emotional rapport. And it’s the way a business builds emotional rapport, including something as “small” as the voicemail greetings on your business phone line, that inspires customers to connect in big ways.
Thanksgiving is a perfect time to personalize your voicemail greetings because voicemail is often the first point of contact you have with customers. Remember that as a business, you can make call waiting anything from a generic or frustrating, to fun and proactive experience.
Personalizing your Thanksgiving voicemail greetings takes just a few minutes but goes a long way! If you aren’t sure how to start, just use these examples, recommended by small business owners just like you.
1.
Recommended by
Lucas Robinson,
CMO, Crediful
This year, our thanksgiving voicemail will feature all of us singing Amazing Grace, while thanking the person for waiting for the call.
Background story:
We have just completed our Halloween voicemail and we are planning to record our thanksgiving voicemail this week. We love personalizing our voicemail machine as a lot of people hear it throughout the day as phone lines get busy with other calls. Our clients love it, and they say it helps them to feel calm once they have been waiting on the phone.”
How to adapt to your business:
Do you have a favorite song that’s about gratitude and sending back positive vibes? How about playing it for your Thanksgiving voicemail greetings this year? If you’re into karaoke, you can record that yourself – adding an extra special touch. Otherwise, use a stock music file of your fave gratitude song.
2.
Recommended by:
Ethan Taub
CEO, Goalry
We like to have a thanksgiving voicemail greeting for our phones, as it helps people get into the festivities, without even actually talking to someone. Our Thanksgiving voice message usually entails a holiday poem relating to the time of year, as well as a thank you for waiting.
Background story:
“We have done this for a couple of years and are still planning to do it this year. I think it gives your company that personal touch that people are looking for, clients love to hear from the employees personally and hearing a friendly voice is something that a lot of people admire during this time of year.”
How to adapt to your business:
Thanksgiving Day poems are a great way to personalize your business voicemail greetings to thanksgiving day without breaking your head. Just google “Thanksgiving Day poems” and find the best fit for your audience. We’d say short and sweet wins the day.
3.
Recommended by:
Dennis Bell
Founder, CEO, Byblos Coffee
Every holiday, we customize our voicemail for relevance to the theme and season. This Thanksgiving, the message is this: “Thank you for calling. We are currently closed in observance of Thanksgiving. We’re unable to attend your call today, but we promise to get back to you if you would kindly leave your name and contact details on record. We also wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
Background story:
Using seasonal voicemails is an effective way to make your callers happy. It’s more personal and will give your customers relevant information about why they’re in your voicemail. Upon leaving their messages, [my callers] wished me the same on Thanksgiving, too. They say they appreciate that I have a voicemail so they can leave any important messages for me. Hearing their voices, I can sense they are happy that they’re able to connect to me through it.
How to adapt to your business:
If you’re a local business that will be closed in observance of Thanksgiving Day, an appropriate voice greeting is absolutely necessary to notify your customers. A good idea is to notify your callers a week in advance of any holiday changes in working hours. Voicemail greetings are a great way to do this, because they can discreetly notify your callers of any changes due to holidays in advance.
4.
Recommended by:
Dan Bailey
President, WikiLawn
Last year we had a voicemail message that was recorded by my son. We recorded him wishing our customers a Happy Thanksgiving and saying when we’d all be back in the office. Then he, unprompted, decided to make turkey noises at the end of it. We obviously kept that in!
Background story:
“I did it on a whim after asking [my son] if he wanted to …and talking to my wife about whether or not having his voice on a recording was a good idea. We agreed that if it was just being used for this and he wanted to do it, there was no harm. We had several customers contact us later saying how adorable it was.”
How to adapt to your business:
Actors say that you can’t outplay kids and pets. If you have a family-friendly business, adding your kids’ voices to your seasonal business greetings is incredibly cute. The simplest thanksgiving voice greeting recorded by a pre-schooler is sure to bring many smiles to your callers. And smiles are always good for business.
5.
Recommended by:
Rex Freiberger
Co-CEO, Gadget Review
In our Thanksgiving voicemail greetings, we wish everyone a happy holiday, hoping they’re able to take time to give thanks, and then letting them know crucial information about our business like our holiday hours.
Background story:
We haven’t recorded a Thanksgiving voicemail before, but we’d like to do one this year. We were actually just discussing it last week. The idea behind it is that this year has been so crazy and human connection feels at an all-time low, so having that element of human contact on our voicemail message could help our customers see us as real people. If this works out we’ll likely use customized voicemails in the future, too.
How to adapt to your business:
If you don’t have the time to do record special Thanksgiving voice greetings or your business is on the formal side, go for simplicity and professionalism. Something as simple as remembering the occasion with a “Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours” and notifying your callers of any holiday business hours changes is a great way to start.
Final word
Whether it’s “Turkey Day” and food, football, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, deep down, Thanksgiving Day is still about gratitude. Gratitude to our family and the abundance at our tables, a moment to pause, a moment to give back the gratitude.
This Thanksgiving Day, in light of circumstances that show us how much the human touch is welcome, let’s also give back to those who make it possible for a business to operate and create that abundance: our customers.
Because gratitude is the small seed that grows a big harvest in people’s hearts.
Have you picked your favorite Thanksgiving voicemail greeting yet?
