Voicemail, recording and messages · For 3CTel customers
How do I record or change a greeting?
You can record a greeting three ways: from your desk phone or app by dialling the voicemail menu and following the prompts, by uploading an audio file you recorded elsewhere, or by typing the text and generating it with text-to-speech. Personal greetings are changed by the user; main-menu and after-hours greetings are changed in the admin portal, or by a 3CTel specialist on request.
Step by step.
Write it first
A personal greeting: "You have reached Priya at Harbour Accounting. I am unable to take your call. Leave your name, number and a brief message and I will call you back." Keep it under 15 seconds.
Pick a method
Phone or app: dial the voicemail access code, choose greetings, and record. Upload: record on a computer or phone in a quiet room and save as a common audio format. Text-to-speech: type the text and pick a voice.
Record or generate
Speak slightly slower than normal conversation. Pause briefly after your name. If using text-to-speech, add commas where you want a pause.
Listen back on a phone
Call your own number from a cell phone and let it go to voicemail. Check the volume and whether the start is clipped.
Assign it
For personal greetings, the recording is active as soon as you save it. For menu and after-hours greetings, in the admin portal open Call Routing → the menu or schedule → Greeting and select the new file. A 3CTel specialist can make this change for you.
Recording versus text-to-speech
A human recording sounds warmer and is usually the right choice for the main greeting callers hear every day. Text-to-speech is consistent, easy to edit and ideal for anything that changes often: holiday closures, temporary notices, a new menu option. Many businesses record the main greeting once and use text-to-speech for everything dated.
If you record in-house, use a quiet room, hold the microphone a hand's width away, and do a few takes. Reading the script aloud twice before recording removes most stumbles.
Scripts you can adapt
- Main menu: "Thank you for calling Maple Physio. For appointments, press 1. For billing, press 2. For all other enquiries, press 0."
- After hours: "Our clinic is open Monday to Friday, 7 am to 7 pm. Leave a message and we will return your call on the next business day."
- Personal: "You have reached Marc in service. I am with a customer or away from my desk. Leave a message and I will get back to you today."
- Temporary: "We are closed today due to weather and will reopen tomorrow morning. Please leave a message."
Avoid saying the date in a personal greeting unless you will change it; an out-of-date greeting undermines trust faster than a generic one.
Related questions.
Can I have different greetings for busy and unanswered?
Yes. Most mailboxes support a separate greeting for when you are on another call versus when you do not answer, and a temporary greeting that overrides both until you remove it, which is handy for vacations.
Can I hire a voice for the greeting?
Yes. Any audio file in a standard format can be uploaded, so a professional voice recording or a colleague's recording works. Ask the voice artist for a version without background music, which tends to sound muddy on phone lines.
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