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Welcome.

It's a beautiful day here in Southern California and I hope it's a beautiful day where you are as well. Even if the rain is falling or snow is piling, we can still improve our day by changing our outlook, our perspective and our skill set. That's why I write this ezine: to give you insights, skills & strategies for making relationships more pleasant, profitable and productive. I'd love to hear from you if you are finding and creating value from the ideas in this ezine. Send me an email at RS@OptimizeInstitute.com with your comments. I'd love to hear from you.

In this Issue:

• Improving Your Work Life - Make Your Outgoing Voicemail Message Work for You
• Inspiring Words for Your Post-It™ Notes

More from Rhoberta...

Remember that we can talk and solve issues by phone through coaching, group coaching or teleseminars. That makes it easier to get an outside perspective right away on any issues brewing in your workplace. Looking for fresh skills on communication, conflict & anger management, neotiation?-HAVE A LOOK HERE NOW. It's all there for you!

Voicemail is a big deal. We've all been annoyed by it AND thankful for it. I've offered some important considerations for you before you record. Use your outgoing message to its best advantage for you and your clients. That's today's article.

Need to improve your business writing skills right now? I've just learned about the WRITE WELL, RIGHT NOW! business writing program that guarantees your writing will improve dramatically during the ten hours of instruction--and all on the phone. HAVE A LOOK.

Invite your friends to enjoy The Rhino Wrestler.They can do that at www.OptimizeInstitute.com right now.

Tweak your voicemail and get it working for you right now. That will be one more rhino taken care of!

Rhoberta

Rhoberta Shaler, PhD
CEO, Optimize! Institute™
Escondido, CA
www.OptimizeInstitute.com

P.S. If you are an HR manager or Admin Professional, be sure to check out those teleseminars I mentioned at www.OptimizeInstitute.com/teleseminars/calendar.htm

INSPIRING WORDS FOR YOUR POST-IT™ NOTES

Happiness is not so much in having or sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Norman MacEwan

You can't build up a reputation on what you are going to do.

Henry Ford.

 

IMPROVING YOUR WORKLIFE:

MAKE YOUR OUTGOING VOICEMAIL MESSAGE WORK FOR YOU.

© Rhoberta Shaler, PhD

What do people hear when your voice mail kicks in? Many people don't give much thought to their outgoing message. That's a mistake!

The person who is calling you wants to hear your voice--live, not Memorex--when the phone is answered. As soon as it is apparent that your digital assistant is answering the call, many folks will become disappointed, annoyed or disengaged. This is the age of instant communication and gratification. "How dare you not be available when I wanted to talk with you?" So, your outgoing voice message must encourage them to communicate in ways that will elicit valuable information that helps you to provide them with what they want. They'll be happier the next time knowing that voicemail works!

Using voice-mail well is a great tactic for fielding and filtering incoming calls. You want the caller to leave a detailed message that gets to the heart of business quickly and helps you respond in a laser fashion. Generalities generally generate waste!

REMEMBER: If you don't tell the caller what do to, the caller is free to do what he or she wants. That could make for a very long, meandering message. You know how tedious it is to wade through long-winded messages especially when you're retrieving them on your cell phone. Take the time to craft your outgoing message to get the optimal return.

In the shortest, most direct way--your outgoing message should be brief but not terse--generally include these key ingredients:

• Begin with your name, so, they are sure they have the right number.
• Add what you do and at what level. Again, you are pre-qualifying the caller that you are the right person to leave a message for at all.
• Give an option for bypassing the message and going straight to voicemail. That will help you win a popularity contest with the impatient and repeat callers even though it does not help you filter them.
• Offer an alternative method of reaching you. Give your email address, or, if reliable, your cell phone number. If you are using your website as a first line of information for new callers, give your website address in your message. This saves so much time!
• Ask them to leave the best time for you to return their call. This is an excellent step to reducing the time wasted in telephone tag.
• Request the best number at which to reach them.
• Close with a brief, pleasant, personal note of intent that suits your personality.

Entrepreneurs have more freedom-of-expression potential than many corporate folks when it comes to creating outgoing messages. A dry, boring message from a stand-up comic would be a disconnect perhaps, in more ways than one! A benefit-laden business tagline that is brief and to the point could be a great inclusion.  Operant word, brief! No one wants to listen to a long diatribe with too many options. If that were not true, people would love complicated systems that take fourteen entries to get to a live person!

Change your greeting often. Haven't you had the experience of calling someone, getting voicemail, and hearing that they were out of the office ten days ago? That doesn't give the caller a warm, fuzzy feeling, or a feeling of confidence that the call will be returned in a timely manner. If they cannot even keep their voicemail up to date, how ever will they be at returning the call? Credibility suffers. Put "Change Voice Mail" in your calendar frequently.

Record your voicemail when you are in a good mood. No joke! There is nothing more dismal and off-putting than an off-hand, angry, down or disengaged voice as the first contact with a new client or customer. Your voicemail is your "face" on your business in your absence. You need to be looking good!

Do you often retrieve your voicemail when you are away from the office? It's a good idea when asking callers to leave their numbers to add "even if you think I have it as I may be away from my Rolodex when I receive your message." This helps you to return the call sooner.

And, a few more considerations:

• Check and return messages promptly
• Make your voicemail system as user-friendly as possible
• Answer your phone personally whenever you can.

 Voicemail is a poor second to reaching you in person. That is the opinion of the caller in most cases. Make your outgoing voicemail message exactly that--outgoing, personable, useful and informative. It is your stand-in. Make it fill your shoes in the best way possible!

© Rhoberta Shaler, PhD  March, 2006  All rights reserved.

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Dr. Rhoberta Shaler is a "people skills" expert--a noted speaker, author, executive coach and founder of the Optimize! Institute in Escondido, CA.   Dr. Shaler works with organizations that know their people are their top resource and with leaders who know that building relationships is a top priority. She is the author of What You Pay Attention to Expands and Wrestling Rhinos: Conquering Conflict in the Wilds of Work as well as more than a dozen books and audio programs. Dr. Shaler is also the founder of YourSpiritualHome.com, an online Center for Spiritual Living. Visit  www.OptimizeInstitute.com & www.YourSpiritualHome.com   You can receive her e-book, No Limits! No Doubts! No Kidding! at no cost by visiting www.tinyurl.com/eqlz5

Excellent communication skills are essential to every person in business. That is why I wrote the book, Wrestling Rhinos: Conquering Conflict in the Wilds of Work. This book offers much more than conflict and anger management skills. It has been reviewed as "a book needed in every business library" by world-renowned speaker and sales expert, Jim Cathcart.

Written in an easy-to-read, down-to-earth style, the book uses actual scenarios and practical examples to bring you the insights and skills to manage relationships at work and turn confrontation into communication. Now in its second, expanded, English edition, Wrestling Rhinos, is currently being published in Chinese, Taiwanese and Russian.

I have created eight teleseminars on the topics covered in Wrestling Rhinos. This is an excellent way for entrepreneurs, executives and employees to get the specific conflict or anger management, communication and negotiation skills they need without ever leaving their desks. These teleclasses can be customized for an industry group.

For more information on these programs, visit: www.OptimizeInstitute.com

This article may be reprinted or republished if the complete copyright/resource information is kept intact. For a formatted version for print, email info@optimizeinstitute.com