Is voicemail enough for your business?

Your hands are busy and another call rings out. Voicemail is enough when your missed calls can wait for a callback, and you actually make that callback. It is not enough when the job needs a live answer right then.

Pull last month's missed calls. Your phone log, your voicemail, your messages and your outgoing calls together show when calls came in, which ones left a message, and how each one was picked up again. That is enough to audit how your current setup handled those calls.

Voicemail is enough when your calls can wait

Some quote requests can wait for a callback, as long as the callback really happens. For that kind of call, voicemail plus a set callback time does the job. Check what your phone plan already gives you for voicemail.

If those are the calls filling your log, voicemail may be all you need. Spend money when your own phone log says you need to.

It is not enough when a job needs a live answer

Voicemail only carries the details contained in a message. When no message is left, your phone log usually still shows the number, and a name if that number is already saved in your contacts. Some calls arrive with no number at all, and the ones that also left no message are counted separately below. What the log does not tell you is what the caller wanted or how soon they needed it. You cannot triage that call from voicemail alone.

The gap is not that the caller necessarily disappeared. The gap is that you have less information to decide which missed calls need attention first.

Check your own log

Before you start, settle one thing: the callback window you are prepared to promise and keep. Every missed call is measured against that same window, from the moment that call came in.

1. 1
   Open your phone log and pull last month's missed calls. Count each call separately: a number that rang you three times is three missed calls, not one.
2. 2
   Set aside the ones you already know were irrelevant to the business, such as a known spam call or a wrong number. Do not guess about the rest. A call from a number you do not recognize stays in.
3. 3
   Count the missed calls that left a voicemail. Call this A, whether or not the log showed a number for them. You can listen to these and act on whatever the message contains.
4. 4
   Count the missed calls that left no message but did show a number. Call this B. You can ring these back, but you cannot tell what they wanted before you do. Every call you kept lands in exactly one of A, B or C.
5. 5
   Count the missed calls that left no message and showed no number, such as a withheld or blocked caller. Call this C. Your log gives you nothing to ring for these, and nothing was said.
6. 6
   Now take the calls in A and in B one at a time. For each one, look at your outgoing calls, your messages, and any later call from that number you picked up, and ask whether you made contact with that number after that call came in and inside your window. A contact that lands exactly at the end of that window counts as inside it. Count the calls in A that pass, and the calls in B that pass. Call these your covered counts. If a call left a message but your log showed no number, use whatever number the message gave you; if it gave none, that call cannot be covered. A contact cannot cover a call that had not happened yet: if a number rang at ten and again at two, ringing back at twenty past ten covers the ten o'clock call only if your window is twenty minutes or longer, and does not cover the two o'clock one. A single later contact can cover both, so long as it still falls inside your window measured from each of them.
7. 7
   Subtract each covered count from the count it came from. A minus its covered count is the calls that left a voicemail and got no contact back in time. B minus its covered count is the same figure for the calls that left no message but did show a number.

Step 6 counts contact made in time, whether you rang, texted, or picked up when they tried again. It does not show what came of the conversation, so treat it as contact made, nothing more. If a call came in near the end of the month and your window ran past it, look into the next month before you decide. If a window is still running when you sit down to do this, leave that call out of every count and come back to it once the window has closed. If your phone only keeps a few weeks of history, use the period it does keep and say so when you read the result.

That leaves you three counts, all taken from the calls you did not rule out. Two of them count calls that got no contact back inside your window: the calls that left a voicemail, and the calls that left no message but did show a number. Apart from the ones step 6 says cannot be covered, those are calls your callback process did not reach in time. The third, C, is the calls that left no message and showed no number. You decide whether those counts are acceptable for your business.

What to put in your voicemail greeting

If voicemail is your setup, make the greeting do the asking. Use this as a starting point and adjust it for your business:

"You’ve reached [your business]. Leave your name, the number to reach you, and what you need done. We call back by [your set time]."

Name, number, and need, plus a callback time you actually keep. That gives you more information to sort the message before you ring back.

Other ways to cover the gap

Some ways to cover this particular gap, and what separates them. This is not the full set of options for missed calls generally, and missed calls beyond this gap are taken up in how to stop missing calls while you're on the job.

• Voicemail with a set callback time. Captures whatever details are contained in the message. Your callback process handles the rest.
• Forwarding to another phone. Routes the call to another number or person. It only adds coverage when someone at the receiving end can answer.
• An answering service. A third party answers calls and collects information according to the service arrangement you choose.
• Dedicated office coverage. Makes answering incoming calls an assigned office responsibility.
• Software that answers the call. Picks up in place of a person. What it asks the caller and what it sends you varies by product, so check before you pay.

Which setup fits depends on what your own log showed: how many calls you did not cover inside your window, and how many left no message and showed no number. Missed calls beyond this gap are taken up in how to stop missing calls while you're on the job.

Where Service Blue fits

If the calls you did not cover inside your window add up to more than you are willing to leave uncovered, you need a different way to handle incoming calls while you are unavailable. Service Blue answers incoming calls live as your business. It asks the caller’s name and what they need, and sends the details to your email and the Service Blue app. Who calls back is still up to you.

Hear the demo