English Listening Instruction: How to Leave a Clear and Professional Voicemail

This lesson is on leaving a voicemail. In this lesson, you'll learn what information to include and not include in a voicemail message. You'll learn how to organize a voicemail message that is clear and professional. We'll also identify content and vocabulary used in an effective and professional voicemail message. When you finish this lesson, you'll know how to leave an effective voicemail message. In the first course of our specialization, which was on networking, you'll learn about how to do these things in a voicemail. Introduce yourself. State your reason for calling. Say your phone number and email address. And give dates and times. If you don't remember those guidelines, you can review them in lesson three in week four of that course. Now we're going to look at messages that are a bit more complicated with specific requests. Some of them are urgent. That means the listener needs to respond right away or very soon. As you listen, take notes and answer these questions about each caller. Does the caller give his or her name and company name? What is this person calling about? Does the caller want Emily to call back? Is this call urgent?

Hi, this is Emily Hamilton with Northwest Events. I'm not available at the moment, so please leave a message and I'll return your call as soon as I can. Hi, Emily. This is Jeremy Banks with Emerald City Green Team. I'm calling about the order for the invitations for the June event. You are going to send me some paper samples, but unfortunately I have not yet received them. I just want to make sure that we have them by Friday. We have to make a decision soon. Could you get back to me today? You've got my number. But let me give it to you again, 555-623-0944. That's 555-623-0944. Hope to talk to you soon. Bye now. Let's review what you heard. In the first call, does the caller give his name and company name? Yes, he does. What is he calling about? He's worried about invitations to an event. Does the caller want Emily to call back? Yes. Is this call urgent? Yes, he wants a call back today.

Let's listen to two other callers with other problems. Try to answer the same questions about each call. Does the caller give her name and company name? What is she calling about? Does the caller want Emily to call back? Is this call urgent? Hi, this is Emily Hamilton with Northwest Events. I'm not available at the moment, so please leave a message and I'll return your call as soon as I can. Hi there. My name is Angela McCoy with Lake Union Distributors. Molly Kane recommended that I contact you. I'm calling about an event that I'm planning and I've got a bit of a problem. I was working with another company that suddenly closed its business and it's not returning our calls. Our annual company meeting is scheduled to be in three weeks so we need to get someone who can take over on short notice. I'm hoping you're available. If you could give me a call right away, I'd appreciate it. I can give you the details when we talk. You can contact me at 555-6780265. Thank you so much. I look forward to talking with you really soon. Bye. How about the second caller? Does the caller give her name and company name? Yes, she does. What is she calling about? She needs an events planner. Does the caller want Emily to call back? Yes. Is this call urgent? Yes, she wants Emily to call right away.

Let's listen to the last call. Hi, this is Emily Hamilton with Northwest Events. I'm not available at the moment so please leave a message and I'll return your call as soon as I can. Hi, Emily. I'm Tramick Evers. I work at a small company here in Seattle, Sound Design. I'm calling because we're planning a special event for a new product that we're going to launch later this year. I've been to your website and I'd love to talk a bit more about the services you provide and share some of our own ideas for this event. Give me a call when it's convenient we can set up a meeting. I'm at 555-422-0611. Looking forward to talking with you. Bye. And our last caller. Does the caller give his name and company name? Yes, he does. What is he calling about? Especially event for a new product. Does the caller want Emily to call back? Yes. Is this call urgent? No, he says when it's convenient. It sounds like Emily Hamilton is a busy person. Fortunately, all of the callers left good voicemail messages so she knows what each person needs and how urgent their issue is.

Leaving a simple voicemail isn't always easy but when you have a problem or if your issue is urgent, it can be even harder. You might rush and forget important information or you might sound nervous or even worse, you might get angry. Even in a crisis, you want to sound professional. Let's look at some guidelines for leaving a professional voicemail when you have a problem. First, be prepared. Spend a few minutes and think about what you want to say. Be sure you know what your goal is for the phone call. What is the problem? What do you want to happen next? A meeting, a phone call, an overnight shipment? Most important, don't call until you're ready. Make notes about the details that you want to include. Be clear about when you need something. What's your deadline? A person with a busy schedule will appreciate knowing that information. Being specific is important. Soon is not the same as three weeks. If the time is more flexible, say that. Instead of we would like to have the budget soon, say we would like to have the budget in three weeks.

Remember Jeremy's situation? He's waiting for the invitations from Emily. He could be angry with Emily but he doesn't want to show that. First, he should find out what happened. It may not be her fault. When you leave a voicemail, be understanding when there's a problem. Give the person a chance to explain or apologize. Most important, don't call when you're angry or upset. That is always unprofessional. When you speak, you want to speak naturally. Don't write a script and read it. When you do that, you don't make a good impression. Also, your pronunciation will not be good. You can use your notes but don't read a script. Often when people are in a hurry or if they're excited about a situation, they speak very quickly. This is a problem for native speakers too. It can make it hard for the person to understand the caller. Instead, take a deep breath and then speak slowly and explain the situation carefully.

People in business are very busy so you don't want to leave a long complicated message. In fact, your message should not be longer than 30 seconds. Give just the most important information, not all the details. If you have a lot of details that you need to discuss, ask the caller to return your call or ask for an appointment to discuss the details. Most important, don't waste their time with long stories or unnecessary information or disorganize thoughts. These days, we usually think that our business contacts have our contact information everywhere they go, but you can't always depend on that. If you have an urgent situation, repeat that important information again. Let's do a quick review here. Here are the things we've discussed about leaving a clear and professional voice mail message. Be prepared. Say what you need, say when you need it, be understanding when there's a problem. Don't call if you're angry or upset. Speak naturally. Speak slowly. Keep your message short and repeat your contact information.