As the COVID-19 coronavirus continues to affect businesses around the world, many offices are being forced to change their hours, reschedule appointments, and even send employees home to work.

To provide as much helpful insight to businesses as possible, we've compiled the top must-have information that should be included in your office's temporary voicemail greeting. 

Must-have information to include in your office's temporary voicemail greetings:

1. 1. Your voicemail should be timely and relevant to the situation at hand.
2. 2. Indicate if you’re working remotely or changing office hours temporarily.
3. 3. Set clear, reasonable expectations for your callers about when they should expect to hear back from someone.
4. 4. State clearly what types of matters are urgent and give examples of issues that are not. This way, patients and callers can have a good understanding of what to expect about call-backs and reduce unnecessary follow-up calls.
5. 5. If you have made disruptions to existing appointments, you should note this, as well as how you plan to reach people to reschedule.

Sample Temporary Voicemail Greeting

"Thank you for calling [your business name]. Due to concerns for public health related to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, we have staff members working remotely and on shortened hours. We appreciate your patience as we reply to callers as efficiently as we can. Please note that our temporary office hours are [opening time to closing time]. Appointments scheduled through [end date] have been disrupted.

We are actively reaching out to all patients who were affected by cancellations or changes by phone and email.If this is an administrative matter related to billing or appointments, we ask that you call us during our normal business hours. If this is an urgent matter concerning patient health needs and you need to speak to a provider on call, please press 1 and our answering service can help you."

 

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