What’s the Deal with All the Boring Voicemail Greetings?

WHY are voicemail greetings such a yawn these days? “You have reached Bob Smith with Widget, Inc. I’m not in right now, but please leave your name and number, and I’ll return your call as soon as possible.”

If you catch someone’s voicemail today, there’s a 99.9% chance that you’ll hear some variation of the above. I had one of these dull greetings myself until about five minutes ago when I decided to change it to the following:

Welcome to Emily Bennington’s voicemail, Marketing Director for Maple Creative. Sorry for missing your call – let me know what you need and we’ll make it happen.

It’s not award-winning by any measure, but at least it doesn’t state the obvious (i.e., I’m not in) or insult the caller by telling them what they already know to do (i.e., leave a message).

All day long I sit with clients and tell them how to differentiate themselves and rise above the noise. Sometimes this is accomplished with grand, sweeping acts – a large-scale TV buy for example – but sometimes you can stand out just as much simply by doing the small things a little differently.