Comments on: Technology & Productivity Tips: Free Voice Mail

By: Sheryl Schuff, CPA

Sheryl Schuff, CPA — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:12:48 +0000

I just had an email question asking how this compares to Grand
Central. Here’s my reply: I haven’t looked at Grand Central for a
while. It used to be a service whose primary feature was to let you
set up a system so callers would use a single number and you could
set up a forwarding/following system so that calls would reach you
on whatever phone you specified… home, office, cell, etc. And it
wasn’t free. I just Googled it and see that it’s been bought out by
Google and is in private beta, so there’s no way to tell exactly
what it will do or cost unless you sign up to be notified when they
open up.

By: Sheryl Schuff, CPA

Sheryl Schuff, CPA — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:51:23 +0000

Gregg, Great comment. I like your strategy and agree that it can
provide powerful results. Thanks for sharing. Additionally, I want
to remind folks how important their greeting is. Remember, this is
probably where prospects are getting their first impression of you.
Make sure to let callers know when they can expect to hear back
from you. This advice applies no matter what kind of messaging
system you use.

By: Gregg Swanson

Gregg Swanson — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:17:31 +0000

Sheryl, this is great info. I use to use 800 link and it looks like
Simple Voice Box might be a bit more flexible. I would add to this
that when a person composes their voice greeting to leave separate
call to action (besides leaving a message), i.e. direct the caller
to your website to receive a special report, or leave their mailing
address to receive a hard copy. This can be very effective and then
allows the person to follow-up with e-mail, hard mail and VM. As
well all know it takes 7 -10 touches before a person buys. A VERY
powerful tool would be to set-up a separate site or page and have
specific questions for the caller to answer. In return the coach
would provide a strategy session…we all know where this is going Again, Sheryl thanks! Gregg Swanson