How to make your business voicemail productive, flexible and smart

In our era of lickety-split thumbs texting as if our lives depend on it, voicemail can seem quaint—and like email, a callback from the turn of the millennium.

But let’s not toss older technology out with the No. 2 pencils. The tried-and-true tools are still around because they work. The key is managing your business voicemail so that it works for you, not against you.

The best way to get the most out of your business voicemail is simple, though it may involve some retraining for your team: respond ASAP. If you listen to a message while multitasking, it’s easy to forget to respond. Not a great way to make callers feel you care.

Make it a habit to act immediately after listening to a voicemail message. Do one of the following:

• Return the call.

• Send yourself a reminder text to respond once you’re not in a rush.

• Archive the voicemail if it relates to a sales order, or forward the message to the proper department.

• Delete robocalls and other unimportant messages.

These actions will help keep your voicemail inbox clutter-free and save you time in the long run. Spare yourself the burden of listening to meandering voicemail messages more than once.

Productivity plus: Make your business voicemail smarter

Business owners know that setting up appropriate professional voicemail greetings can keep clients happy, and even help medical and dental patients remain, um, patient. A well-crafted greeting can give callers the information they want and possibly avoid the need to leave a message, or guide them to leave a brief message that you can respond to later.

Here are three tips that will up-level your business voicemail for maximum results:

1. Voicemail with swift costume changes. With Ooma Office, your voicemail messages can be converted to email as quickly as a certain pop superstar changes her outfits on tour. Having this level of flexibility means you can access your voicemail messages as attached email audio files for easy, on-the-go listening.

2. Voicemail that gets the “lyrics” right. You know how people often mishear or misinterpret song lyrics, sometimes hilariously? There’s a term for this: mondegreens. With song lyrics, there is typically no harm, no foul (unless you’re the performer).

However, misinterpreting a business voicemail could negatively impact your business. That’s where a feature of Ooma Office Pro and Ooma Pro Plus—voicemail transcription—comes in handy. Your voicemail messages will automatically be forwarded to your email account as an MP3 audio file attachment, and the transcribed text appears in the body of the email. No guarantees that the transcription will be spot on, but it should give you a good idea about what the caller needs.

We asked Ooma Leaders, a loyalty group of Ooma Office users, how they use Voicemail Transcription. Here are some of their responses:

• “So easy to check my voicemail from anywhere on my phone through my email app!” ~ Nora V.

• “The voicemail transcription service has been so helpful to our micro-business. So nice to be able to take a quick glance at the email for the calls we miss on the construction site. Thanks, Ooma!” ~ Charlotte D.

• “This feature is probably one of my favorites that Ooma offers. Really convenient as a business owner, to know if a VM is worth replying to right away based on the content of the call.” ~ Matt P.

• “I love the Ooma voicemail option and transcription service as it saves me a lot of time when I may be busy or on the road.” ~ Liana F.

• “The most value I have received from the transmission (sic) service is arranging meetings. I ask colleagues to state their availability in my voicemail. The transcript allows me to easily match our schedules! ~ Mike E.

• “Voicemail by email is great for screening robocalls and vendors. Life’s too short to get stuck deleting calls about auto warranties from my work phone.” ~ L.A.

• “Having voicemails transcribed and sent to my emails allows me to save voicemails to my project files.” ~ Adrienne G.C.

• “Ooma’s voicemail transcription service is perfect for a sole proprietor who travels and is in meetings a lot but still has to keep up with the client calls in the office! Easy and quick to review!” ~ Blake J.

• “Working in a library means that quiet is a premium. Being able to silently check phones is great for me and for patrons.” ~ Mathew W.

3. Voicemail with colleagues. A shared voicemail box may not sound as enticing as a shared social event with your team, but it can be a valuable bonding tool.

Ooma Pro Plus allows you to create shared voicemail boxes and include any coworker or company extension, such as a ring group. Those assigned to the shared voicemail box have full permission to handle the voicemails as they choose. You can use this feature to split your workload, or to keep the team informed. It’s also a superb tool for managing the workflow when a teammate is on a lengthy vacation or a leave of absence.

Texting may be the tech of the moment, but creative voicemail solutions go the distance for business success. Here’s to yours!