The holidays are just around the corner and it's time for a good holiday greeting. Let your customers know when your business will be closed and when you plan to reopen, promote your company’s seasonal specials or just extend a special greeting to all of your callers.
Use this sparingly and only if it actually reflects the spirit of your company. For example, a seasonal holiday greeting wishing your callers joy and prosperity in the New Year would hardly be appropriate for a collections agency.
Holiday Greeting Do’s
- Mentioning your current promotion is a great marketing tool that could pay for itself in a single sale!
- Consider having holiday greetings recorded in a different voice, so that frequent callers will recognize right away that this differs from your ‘normal’ announcement.
- Consider holiday on hold music which you can search for on the internet.
Holiday Greeting Don'ts
- Don’t say that you are closed for ‘Christmas’ or ‘Hannukah’ as some of your customer’s may not recognize that holiday. Just say ‘Holiday Season’.
- Don’t forget to remind yourself to switch back to your normal greeting after the holidays or ask your hosted PBX provider to program it to switch back automatically.
Sample Automated Attendant Seasonal Greeting Scripts
- Thank you for calling Splunkworks Company. Check out our holiday specials at www.splunkworks.com. If you know your party’s extension, you may …
- You have reached Splunkworks Company. From “our family” to “your family,” we would like to wish you a joyful holiday season and a successful New Year. If you know your party’s extension, you may …
- Thank you for calling Splunkworks Company. Ask your customer service rep about our 4th of July discounts on all replacement services. If you know your party’s extension, you may …
- Thank you for calling ABC Corporation. Be sure to ask about our Annual Widget Clearance, going on now. For a limited time, all Widgets are 50% off. This is your chance to save big! If you know the extension of the person you wish to reach, you may dial it at any time. For sales, press ‘1’. For customer service, press ‘2’. For purchasing or accounting, press ‘3’. For technical support, press ‘4’. If you would like company information such as hours of operation and location, press ‘5’. Otherwise, press ‘0’, or stay on the line, and a member of our staff will assist you shortly.
- Thank you for calling Equiinet. All of us here at Equiinet wish you and yours a joyous holiday season and a happy and prosperous new year. If you know the extension of the person you wish to reach, you may dial it at any time.
- Thank you for calling Equiinet. Our offices are presently closed for the holidays. Our offices will reopen on Tuesday, January 2nd. You may leave a message for your party by dialing their extension now. Otherwise, please press ‘0’ to leave a message in our general mailbox, and we will contact you as soon as we return. If your call is of an urgent nature, please press ‘1’ now to have your call forwarded to our Emergency Support Center. All of us here at Equiinet wish you and yours a joyous holiday season and a happy and prosperous new year.
Rehearsing and Testing
Before you record your automated attendant script, rehearse it several times. Use this to fine tune pronunciation and annunciation. After the new greeting is recorded, listen to your message immediately to check the recording for errors and make sure all options announced as intended.
Equiinet Customers
Customers of Equiinet can record their greeting and have our support team setup their greeting to turn on and turn off on certain days. Please refer to our Knowledgebase Article on how to record your holiday greeting, and submit a Help Desk Request with instructions on when you want it to turn ‘on’ and when you want it to turn ‘off’. Call us at: 800-789-6001 or 702-789-6030 for assistance.
