Is Your Phone System Ready for the Holidays?

From time to time, you may wish to load a special Auto Attendant, such as when you are having a special promotion that you want every caller to hear about, or you are closed for an extended period, or just want to “get into the holiday spirit!” If your office will require a holiday greeting to be set up on your phone system, then now is the time to make sure everything is set up correctly. Make sure you know how to record your message and check that your holiday greeting works before the holiday season begins.

A good holiday greeting will 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 seasonal 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

  • Do mention your current promotion is a great marketing tool that could pay for itself in a single sale!
  • Do consider having these recorded in a different voice, so that frequent callers will recognize right away that this differs from your ‘normal’ announcement.
  • Do also 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 The Operations Tech Company. Check out our holiday specials at www.operationstech.about.com. If you know your party’s extension, you may …
  • You have reached The Operations Tech 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 The Operations Tech 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 Press8 Telecom. All of us here at Press8 Telecom 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. 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 Press8Telecom. Our offices are presently closed for the holidays. Our offices will reopen on Monday, 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 Press8 Telecom 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, have the person you selected to read it rehearse it several times in front of you. Use this to fine tune pronunciation and annunciation. After the new greeting is recorded, call your phone system immediately to check the recording for errors and make sure all options announced work as intended.

Press8 Telecom Customers

Customers of Press8 Telecom can record their greeting and have our support team setup their greeting to turn on and turn off on certains 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: 800-349-VOIP for assistance.

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