Business voicemail: greetings, messages, and callbacks

Voicemail has two halves: the greeting (who is away, until when, who covers) and the message (who is calling, about what, what they need). Names, extensions, and deadlines carry the answers — and the phrase after the tone marks where the real message begins.

Read the sentences below, then practice the whole lesson with audio.

1. 1You have reached the voicemail of Karen Lee in the accounting department.
2. 2I am away from my desk attending a conference until Thursday.
3. 3For urgent invoice questions, please contact my assistant at extension two one seven.
4. 4Otherwise, leave your name, number, and a brief message after the tone.
5. 5Hi Karen, this is Tom from the Riverside office calling about the quarterly figures.
6. 6The numbers for March look higher than what we discussed last week.
7. 7I want to confirm them before we send the report to headquarters.
8. 8Could you call me back tomorrow morning before my ten o'clock meeting?
9. 9If I am unavailable, my colleague Rachel can take your call.
10. 10She has a copy of the spreadsheet with my latest notes.
11. 11Also, the auditors asked for the receipts from the client dinner in February.
12. 12I scanned them and uploaded everything to the shared drive yesterday.
13. 13Let me know if any files are missing or hard to read.
14. 14Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long message.
15. 15I look forward to hearing from you soon, goodbye.