English Telephone Skills: Efficient Voicemail Techniques and Practical Examples

Yesterday you learned phrases for having a conversation on the telephone. But what if you call somebody and they're not available? You'll have to leave a voicemail message on their answering machine or cell phone. So today you're going to learn 5 simple steps to leaving a great voicemail in English. Let's get started. There are 5 essential parts to a voicemail message: introduction, time and date, reason for the call, contact information, and closing. Let's begin with the introduction. There are two possible phrases for the introduction, formal and informal. Use the formal introduction if this is your first contact with the person, and use the informal introduction if it's a person you speak with regularly. The more formal version is, 'Hello, my name is Dana Klein from Impact Marketing.' Informally, you could say, 'Hello, this is Dana.'

Next, the time and date. It's helpful to say the time and date when you are leaving the voicemail. For example, 'It's 10 in the morning on Tuesday, October 3rd.' Or, 'It's around 2.30 pm on Thursday, January 24th.' Make sure to use ordinal numbers when saying the date. Say 'October 3rd,' not 'October 3.' Say 'January 24th,' not 'January 24.' This ensures clarity and professionalism in your message.

Next, say the reason for the call. You can say, 'I'm calling about' plus a noun, e.g., 'I'm calling about the invoice you recently sent.' Or, 'I'm calling to' plus a verb, e.g., 'I'm calling to find out if you're going to the conference.' Explaining the purpose clearly helps the recipient understand your request immediately.

The next important element of a voicemail is your own contact information. You can use these phrases: 'Could you call me back? My number is…' 'Could you email me? My email address is…' 'You can reach me at…' followed by your phone number or email address. Providing clear contact details ensures the person can respond easily.

Finally, the closing. Informally, you can say, 'Thanks a lot. Bye.' Or more formally, 'Thank you very much. Bye.' Informally, you might also say, 'I'll talk to you later. Bye.' And more formally, 'I hope to hear from you soon. Bye.' Now you're ready to practice your listening. There are six voicemail messages. Three are easy and three are more difficult. Listen to each message and try to answer the questions. Then check your answers by reading the transcripts in the lesson text.

Easy message number one: Hi, Joe. It's Patty. It's 8.30 on Monday morning, and I'm calling about our meeting on Thursday. I'm afraid we need to reschedule it. There are some visitors coming to our company in the morning, and I'm going to have to stay with them the whole day. But I'm free Wednesday afternoon after three or Friday morning anytime before 11. Just let me know what time works best for you. Please give me a call at 8641037 extension 995. Again, that's 8641037 extension 995. Talk to you later. Bye.

Easy message number two: Hello, my name is Jennifer Bergen, and I'm calling to request some information about your translation services. I have a contract that needs to be translated from French to Spanish as soon as possible. It's 40 pages long, and it needs to be translated by next Tuesday. I'd like to know how much this project would cost and what payment methods you accept. Please call me back at 2150339. Thanks. Bye.

Easy message number three: Hi, Barbara. This is Marcy Schoenfeld from the Accounting Department. I'm calling because I got the financial reports you sent me, but it looks like the data from 2010, and I really need the data from 2011. Could you send me the 2011 reports by the end of the day? My email address is m as in mother s c h o e n f e l d at biz.com. That's bi z dot com. Thanks a lot. Take care.

Difficult message number four: Good afternoon. My name is Diane Samuel from the Tech Team Training Institute, and I'm calling to give you the information you requested about our computer courses. We offer everything from general classes and basic computer use to specializations in graphic design and network maintenance. The courses can last anywhere from one week up to three months, with prices beginning at $85 per student. We can customize the programs to your company's needs. Please let me know how we can best help your employees. You can reach me at 1 8 8 8 405 6267 or by email at d Samuel. That's d is in dog s as in September. AMU EL at tech team dot net. I hope to hear from you soon. Bye.

Difficult message number five: Hello, Dr. Stevens. This is Kathy Brown from the Biomedical Engineering Conference. It's about 1 o'clock on Wednesday, and I'm calling because I haven't yet received the title of your presentation. We're getting ready to print the conference programs, so I really need to know your title by tomorrow. As a reminder, you're presenting on Saturday, April 13th at 1:30 p.m. But you should arrive half an hour earlier to confirm that you have all the equipment you need. Please call me as soon as you can. You already have my office number, but you can also reach me on my cell at 8185340. Thank you. Have a good afternoon.

Difficult message number six: Hello, my name is Sandy Myers, and I ordered some office supplies from your company on September 15th. We just received the products, but there are several mistakes. For one thing, we ordered ink for our photocopier, but you sent us printer ink instead, and it's not compatible with the photocopier. Also, there aren't enough folders. We bought 200 boxes, but we only received 100, and we didn't get any of the envelopes we ordered. Could you send us the missing products by overnight shipping as soon as possible? If you need to check your records, my order number is 069ALX57B. Thank you. Bye.

These are the English listening materials about business English courses, presentations, meetings, negotiations, and telephone communication collected by Qicai.com editor Xiao Wu. We hope you gained something after listening!