What Is a Telephone Messaging System and Why Is It So Valuable?
A telephone messaging system delivers pre-recorded messages to a designated list of phone numbers. You can use the system to deliver a single message or thousands of messages at once. Automated telephone message and broadcast technology is giving businesses across many industries the power to execute mass phone calls and alert notifications in less time and with greater consistency and accuracy.
How a Telephone Messaging System Works
To understand why so many businesses are embracing phone messaging systems, you have to understand how mass messaging systems work. The following steps offer a generic overview of how most automated phone messaging systems function:
1. The sender creates a pre-recorded voice message or types out a message to have the phone system read the message to the recipient.
2. The sender submits the message to the telephone messaging provider along with a list of phone numbers to receive the message. This is easily done through computer software or digital applications at any hour of the day or night.
3. The messaging service uses broadcasting technology to dial every number on the list and deliver the message either to the person answering the call or to a voicemail box. If a pre-recorded voice message was provided, it is delivered to every phone number on the list as it was submitted. If a typed message was submitted, then text-to-speech technology is used to create a professional voice message before it is delivered.
How to Use a Telephone Messaging System
If you want to eliminate hours of live phone time by utilizing a professional messaging system, the first step is to select the system that best fits your call needs and budget. The easiest telephone messaging systems have well-developed software that allows you to set up and manage all voice broadcasts from any computer or mobile device with internet access.
Once you set up a cloud-based account with your chosen service provider, upload a contact list or enter phone numbers manually. The next step is to record the message you want to send by either dialing into the software and recording your message directly or speaking into the software with the microphone on your computer.
If you don’t want to use your own speaking voice, make sure to select a voice broadcasting system equipped with text-to-voice technology. This capability allows you to type out your message, with a clear, professional computerized voice that audibly reads the message. It is a fast way to create a pre-recorded message that sounds professional every time.
With your pre-recorded message saved and a list of phone numbers entered, you’re ready to initiate your first mass voice broadcast. A good phone messaging system will allow you to place all calls immediately or schedule them for a future date and time. You can complete one mass broadcast at one time or split calls up over time.
A telephone messaging system also enables you to schedule repeat calls to go out to some or all of the phone numbers you entered. More developed systems will allow you to upload multiple messages and call lists, sending a different message to different groups of phone numbers. You can arrange telephone number groups and call schedules, depending on your business needs.
Related: How to Get the Most Out of Voice Broadcasting Software
Now that you understand the basic process of using a telephone messaging system, the question is how you might apply this technology for your business or organization. There are some internal and external use cases to consider.
Internal Uses
· Emergency Notifications – Send a message to every member of a team or an entire corporation when you have an urgent deadline approaching or in the event of cancellation due to adverse weather. Whenever you need to reach a group of people with an urgent update, an automatic mass broadcast will save you valuable time.
· Employee or Team Reminders – If you’ve ever had to send out repeat reminders to multiple people by phone or text, you know how much time it consumes. Recording the reminder message and then scheduling it to go out to a select group of phone numbers at specific times can save you hours every week. It’s a simple way to reduce workloads and improve productivity.
· Data Collection – Interactive telephone formats like surveys are a great way to collect information from employees and other internal groups quickly. Allowing team members to speak answers into the phone or hit numbers on their keypad simplifies the process, potentially increasing participation numbers.
· Job Candidate Outreach – A growing number of human resource departments are taking advantage of automated telephone services. They pre-record messages for job applicants and then send them out at critical times. They may not send out thousands of calls at once, but they send messages frequently and save time by automating the process.
External Uses
· Reminder Messages – Use your telephone messaging system to remind patients of upcoming appointments or repeat customers of blowout sales. If you receive signs of great interest in a special product or event, it’s a good idea to send out reminder messages before, during, and after the event. A quick reminder could improve turnout or boost sales.
· Alerts and Notifications – When you have something new to announce, you can use voice broadcasting like a telephone billboard. Just as you might send announcements and notifications through email, you can send out a quick message that provides critical information in a more intimate format.
· Voicemail Drops – According to Pew research released in 2020, approximately 80% of Americans are unlikely to answer a call on their cellphone if they don’t recognize the phone number. The good news is that many will check their voicemail boxes, so you can still reach them if you send out an automated voicemail drop.
· Political Calls – From Get Out the Vote (GOTV) calls to general voter outreach, you can save a lot of time by allowing a computer to do the dialing. Precision in wording and accuracy of details may matter more when the message comes from a political figure or party, so pre-recorded messages are valuable tools that eliminate potential human error.
· Interactive Polls and Surveys – Find out what customers thought of their recent visit to your store or allow repeat customers to vote on the name for a new product. There are endless ways to use interactive phone calls that allow your followers, customers, and other groups to provide information that may guide your business to greater success. It’s a simple form of data collection.
Benefits of Using a Telephone Messaging System
Are you starting to see how a telephone messaging system may fit into the workflow at your business? Maybe a significant percentage of your budget currently goes to people sitting on phones, processing outbound phone calls on your behalf. Maybe you don’t currently send out many calls but see the potential for greater internal and external communication if you start.
Either way, there are some clear benefits from embracing automated telephone messaging system. Let’s take a look at each of them for a deeper understanding. You may also see benefits that are unique to your company or organization once you start discussing this option with key decision makers.
Message Consistency
One of the biggest problems with outbound calling is human nature. When members of your team make repeat phone calls, they’re more likely to make mistakes even if they’re reading from a script. For starters, scripts can lead to robotic voice tones that sound less than enthusiastic. Moods also play into tone, which can lead to more hang-ups and less engagement over time.
If you’re making political calls or sending messages that are potentially controversial, you also have to worry about humans getting emotional or overly excited. Computerized messages are much safer because there is no human to get upset if someone uses foul language or calls names before disconnecting a call.
When you pre-record your messages, you have the time to make sure everything is perfect from word choice and pacing to voice tone. You can use one consistent voice for every call, which allows you to match every phone call to your company’s brand. If you have never thought about telephone calls fitting your brand, now is the time to start. Every call is a representation of your company and could influence your reputation.
Live callers are also prone to leaving out information once they’ve left numerous messages. Mistakes from fatigue or boredom simply don’t happen when you’re sending one pre-recorded message to every person on your list.
Related: 4 Reasons to Use Interactive Voice Broadcasting
Cost Savings
Can a telephone messaging system really save your company or organization money? Yes, it can if your company currently pays employees to make hundreds or thousands of phone calls every week. Think about the amount of time those employees spend on the phone and what you pay each of them per hour. Then imagine sending out thousands of calls at one time while those employees handle more critical tasks.
If you operate a call center or pay an external call center to make outbound calls, you may have more substantial cost savings to consider. You may designate more sensitive calls to human experts while utilizing pre-recorded messages for other outbound call purposes. That reduces the number of calls made by your call center, which could reduce the number of agents needed to complete the job.
If you’re currently struggling to hire call center employees or know that your in-office employees are overwhelmed by phone call tasks, your cost savings could extend to staffing as well. Maybe you won’t need as many call agents. Perhaps you can relieve stress on employees, which improves morale and may prevent some turnover.
Heightened Quality
There are so many things that can go wrong when a live person makes a phone call or leaves a voicemail. There are those short gaps between the beep of a voicemail system and a human speaking, which gives time for someone on the other end to hang up in annoyance. Then there are rambling messages that get cut off by the final beep of a voicemail system, eliminating critical information from the message.
The more calls your company makes, the greater risk of technical glitches and poor line quality as well. You can fix all of that by pre-recording messages and having them delivered at once over fully dedicated copper/PRI lines from trustworthy carriers. There are greater quality concerns when you go with a phone message system that utilizes VoIP technology, so copper/PRI lines are critical. For example, VoIP messages are more prone to packet loss, background noise, and high latency issues.
The more you value quality in messaging, the more value you will see in utilizing a professional telephone message service. By embracing modern technology, you ensure that every call goes out at the right time with a crisp, clear voice that is easily understood by call recipients.
Tracking and Reporting
Are metrics important to your phone call and messaging process? If you haven’t collected data from calls or followed metric reports in the past, you may want to start once you see the high-value information included in such reports. It’s difficult to collect much information from live calls, but a messaging system makes it easy.
Think about sending out a survey and receiving a detailed report of the data every week or month. Instead of going through the raw data yourself, you can browse a report that makes it fast and easy to overview the trends and general results.
Are you starting to see the big benefits that come with using a telephone messaging system? If so, contact VoiceShot to sign up for one of the most reliable voice broadcasting systems available today. We use the best technology to ensure efficient and consistently high-quality calls, and we’re entirely cloud based. Let’s talk about how our services can save you time, money, and perhaps a few headaches.