Tips for Successful Voice Mail Usage
To take advantage of the University’s Sprint Network, which provides reduced rates and volume discounts, telephone calling cards may be issued to department administrators (department chair or above) who are either required to make calls on behalf of the University while on travel status or working on projects that require making calls from off campus. These calling cards may be used for both domestic and international calls.
How To Recording Your Greeting
When a telephone call cannot be answered, a voice mailbox records messages from callers or routes the calls to another extension, department, or designated “personal assistant.” For a complete list of mailbox features, please see the Campus Information and Telephone Directory. Use the tips listed below to help your callers leave a message or be directed to another extension when you are unable to answer telephone calls. All of these customizations can be performed at the system’s READY prompt.
The Message Header (Jane Doe, Biology Department, extension 3-1234) identifies the caller if the caller has a mailbox on the system. The message header precedes any message left by the caller. This “introduction” ensures that the recipient knows the information needed (i.e., the caller’s name and extension) to return the call. The message header also becomes a default greeting for mailbox owners who have not recorded a personal greeting, or have turned the greeting off. The message header, combined with a system recording would announce, for example, “Jane Doe, Biology Department, extension 3-1234...is unavailable.” With this recording, the caller confirms that the correct person and extension have been reached. In addition, when creating a telephone distribution list, the message header of each individual added to the list is “read back” as confirmation that the correct extension was included.
Personal Assistance allows a voice mail owner to link another person’s extension to their mailbox. When this feature is enabled, callers are offered the option of dialing 0 to be automatically transferred to the selected “personal assistant,” or to leave a message in the voice mailbox. (The extension number of the personal assistant is not made public.) When the call reaches the personal assistant’s extension, the mailbox owner is announced in case the personal assistant needs to customize the answer greeting.
Note: The individual selected as the personal assistant must have a voice mailbox on the system in order for this feature to work properly.
A personalized greeting can be recorded that provides callers with useful information when you are unavailable to answer calls. Many people have a practice of recording a new greeting every day indicating whether or not they are on campus and/or when they are likely to respond to messages.