Getting more jobs
Business voicemail greeting examples for your shop
What your greeting is actually for
Nobody hears your voicemail greeting on a good day. They hear it when you are on a roof, under a truck, or asleep - which means the greeting is the whole of your shop's front desk for that caller, for about fifteen seconds.
It has one real job: turn the call into a message you can act on. A good greeting means you call back already knowing the address and the problem, instead of calling back just to ask what is going on. It also tells the caller when they will hear from you, so they are not left guessing whether anybody is coming.
What it cannot do is make somebody stay who has already decided to hang up and dial the next shop. That limit matters, and I will come back to it at the end. First, the part you can fix today.
The five things every business greeting needs
Every greeting below does these five things. If yours is missing one, that is the line to add. If it has more than these, that is what to cut.
- Your shop name, first: It tells the caller they dialed the right place. "Hi, you've reached Mike" works for Mike's friends. A new customer who got your number off a truck door has no idea who Mike is.
- Exactly what to leave: Name, address or part of town, and what is going on. "Leave a detailed message" does not work, because nobody knows which details you want. Tell them.
- When they will hear back: A promise you can keep. "We'll call you back today" means something. "As soon as possible" means nothing, and callers know it.
- What to do if it cannot wait: Only if you actually take emergency calls. Never put an emergency option in a greeting that nobody answers - that is worse than leaving it out.
- An early finish: Every second before the beep is a second the caller can give up. Say the five things and stop.
Business voicemail greeting examples you can copy
Swap in your details and read them out loud before you record, so they sound like you and not like a page. Keep the brackets honest - if you do not return calls the same day, do not say you do.
- The everyday greeting (your workhorse): "You've reached [your shop]. We're out on jobs right now. Leave your name, your address, and what's going on, and we'll call you back [today]."
- An owner-operator on a cell phone: "Hi, this is [your name] with [your shop]. I'm probably on a job and can't grab the phone. Leave your name, where you are, and what you need, and I'll call you back [when]."
- An auto repair shop: "Thanks for calling [your shop]. We're in the bays right now. Leave your name, the year, make, and model, and what it's doing, and we'll call you back [today]."
- A shop that takes emergency calls: "You've reached [your shop]. If this is an emergency - [no heat, no power, water where it shouldn't be] - [what to do, for example: call our on-call line at (number)]. Otherwise leave your name, address, and what's going on, and we'll call you back [today]."
- A small office line: "Thanks for calling [your shop]. [Name] is on another call or away from the desk. Leave your name, your address, and what you need, and we'll get back to you [by end of day]."
After-hours greeting examples
After hours, the caller has a different question on their mind: is anybody going to deal with this before morning? Answer it in the first few words, then give them the same three things to leave.
Keep the hours short. "Back at 7 tomorrow" is useful. Reading out the full week's schedule is not, and it is the part of a greeting that goes stale first.
- Closed for the night: "You've reached [your shop]. We're closed for the night and back at [time] tomorrow. Leave your name, your address, and what's going on, and yours will be one of the first calls we return."
- Closed for the weekend: "You've reached [your shop]. We're closed until [Monday] at [time]. Leave your name, address, and what you need, and we'll call you back first thing."
- Closed, with an emergency option: "You've reached [your shop] after hours. If it can't wait until morning, [what to do]. If it can, leave your name, address, and what's going on, and we'll call you back when we open at [time]."
Holiday and closed-day greetings
A holiday greeting needs one extra thing the others do not: the day you are back. Everything else stays the same.
"You've reached [your shop]. We're closed [today / through (date)] for [the holiday] and back on [day] at [time]. Leave your name, your address, and what's going on, and we'll call you back when we open." If you take emergency calls over the holiday, add the same emergency line from the after-hours version.
Then set a reminder on your phone to switch it back. A Thanksgiving greeting still playing in December tells every new caller that nobody is minding the shop.
What to cut from your greeting
Most greetings that frustrate callers are not missing anything. They are carrying something that should not be there.
- "Your call is important to us": It tells the caller they reached a system, not a shop. Say it the way you would say it standing at their door.
- Every service you offer: They already called you for a reason. A list of services is ten seconds of talking before they get to tell you what that reason is.
- Your website, spelled out: Nobody writes down a web address while they are holding a phone over a leaking water heater.
- "Please call back during business hours": This hands the work straight back to the person who already tried once. Most of them will not call twice - they will call somebody else.
- Hours that are no longer true: Wrong hours are worse than no hours. If your greeting still says you close at 6 and you now close at 5, cut the hours out entirely.
- The phone's default recording: A robot voice reading back the number does not even confirm the caller reached a business. If you have never recorded a greeting, this is the first thing to fix.
Recording it so it sounds like a shop
The words matter less than people think and the recording matters more. A few things make a plain greeting sound like a business that has its act together.
The steps for changing a greeting are different on every phone and phone system, so your carrier's or phone system's own help page is the place for the button-by-button part.
- Record somewhere quiet: Not in the cab with the engine running, and not in the bay when the compressor kicks on.
- Slow down on the shop name: It is the one thing the caller has to catch. Everything else they can figure out.
- Sound like you, not like you are reading: Two or three takes is normal. Keep the one that sounds like you talking to a customer.
- Call your own line and listen to the beep: Call your number from a different phone and let it ring out. It is the only way to hear exactly what your customers hear, including how long they wait before the greeting even starts.
- Say it twice if you need to: If a real share of your callers speak Spanish, record the same greeting again in Spanish right after the English one - and have somebody fluent say it.
What a better greeting will not fix
Here is the limit I promised at the top. A better greeting improves the messages you get. It does not change how many people leave one. The caller whose AC quit in August, or whose car is dead in a parking lot, often hangs up at the beep no matter what the greeting says, because a recording is a recording.
You can check this for your own shop in five minutes. Look at last week's call log, count the calls that rang out, and count the voicemails you actually got. If those numbers are close, your greeting is doing its job and this page is all you need. If lots of calls rang out and only a few left a message, the greeting is not where the jobs are going - the hang-ups are.
That gap is what missed-call text-back is for. Handlebar does not touch your voicemail - it stays exactly as it is, and anybody who wants to leave a message still can. When a call goes unanswered, it sends a real text from your shop number within 60 seconds, has a real conversation, and books the job on your calendar. If you run text-back, it is worth one extra line in your greeting: "If you called from a cell phone, watch for a text from this number - you can reply there instead." Book a 30-minute call if you want to see how that would work on your line.
Common questions
What is a good voicemail greeting for a business?
A short one that does five things: says your shop name first, tells the caller exactly what to leave (name, address, and what is going on), says when they will hear back, gives an emergency option only if you actually take emergency calls, and stops. For example: "You've reached [your shop]. We're out on jobs right now. Leave your name, your address, and what's going on, and we'll call you back today."
How long should a business voicemail greeting be?
My recommendation is something you can say comfortably in about fifteen to twenty seconds. That is not a rule from any carrier - it is just that every second before the beep is a second the caller can hang up. If yours runs longer, it is almost always carrying a service list, a website, or a full week of hours that can come out.
Should I put my business hours in my voicemail greeting?
Only the part the caller needs, and only if it is current. "We're closed for the night and back at 7 tomorrow" is useful. A full weekly schedule is long, and it is the first thing in a greeting to go out of date - and wrong hours are worse than none.
Do people still leave voicemails?
I am not going to quote you a survey on it, because your own phone answers the question better for your shop than anybody's average. Count last week's calls that rang out and compare that with the voicemails you received. If most missed callers left a message, your greeting is worth polishing. If most did not, the greeting is not where the jobs are being lost.
Stop losing jobs to missed calls
Book a 30-minute call and I'll show you how Handlebar would work for your shop.