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United StatesVoicemail you actually listen to.
The problem with voicemail has never been the recording; it is the listening. A message you have to go and fetch is a message you don’t fetch. That is why here it simply arrives in your email as an audio file, among the rest of your work, where you do see it.
How a message arrives
- From
- CallFactory voicemail
- To
- reception@johnson-partners.co.uk
- Received
- Tuesday 18:42
Voicemail on 020 7946 0258 — from +44 7700 900245
An ordinary audio file in an ordinary email. No app, no dial-in code, no separate mailbox. You forward it to a colleague the way you forward any email.
The caller who would otherwise just hang up
Without voicemail you don’t even know they called. There is no missed call to follow up, no number to ring back, no trace. As far as you are concerned, they were never there.
You hear why they called
A missed call gives you a number. A voicemail gives you the question, and often you can answer it by email instead of in a second phone call.
You hear it in their own words
Exactly what someone said, with the emphasis they put on it. That cuts out the noise of a colleague passing on the message, and with a complaint you hear straight away how angry someone is.
It lands with the right people
Messages from the main number go to reception, those from the sales line to sales. Every number delivers to its own addresses, and there can be several.
Three moments when it takes over
Voicemail is almost never the first destination. It is what happens when the rest of your routing has run its course, which is why it is the setting everyone ends up at and nobody looks at.
Nobody answers
Your whole list of destinations has rung and nobody was there. This is the normal route, and it kicks in after the ringing time you have set.
The queue runs out
Someone has waited for the maximum waiting time. Instead of being cut off, they get the chance to leave a message.
You are closed
Outside your opening hours, or on a bank holiday. Then voicemail is the whole route, and the caller hears your evening greeting straight away.
Two modes that don't make the phone ring at all
Voicemail doesn’t have to be a safety net. You can also let it handle the whole call, and for some numbers that is exactly what you want.
Straight to voicemail
The phone doesn’t ring. The caller hears your greeting and leaves a message straight away. Nobody has to answer, and nobody is disturbed.
What for: an order line outside opening hours, a tip line, a sign-up number for a promotion. Anything where the message is the work and the call isn’t.
An announcement, with no message
The caller hears what they need to know and then the call ends. They can’t leave a message, because there is nowhere to leave it.
What for: the summer shutdown, a number that has moved, a day when the whole office is out. Better than a voicemail box nobody empties that week.
That second one is the most honest option there is. If you know nobody will call back this week anyway, letting people leave a message is a promise you won’t keep. Better to tell them straight away when you will be back.
Four choices, and the last decides whether it works
What the caller hears
Your greeting: recorded yourself or typed via text-to-speech. Say in it when you will call back, because that is what someone wants to know before they start talking.
“We will call you back tomorrow morning” gets you more useful messages than “leave a message after the tone”.
Which addresses it goes to
One address or several, and different for each number. The sales line to sales, the main number to reception.
Add at least two. One address means messages go unheard as soon as that one person is off.
When it kicks in
After a set number of seconds, or straight away. The longer you wait, the more callers hang up before they reach voicemail, and you never see those.
Add up your whole ring sequence. If it comes to more than forty seconds in total, hardly anyone will hear your voicemail.
Who listens to it, and when
This is not a setting but an agreement, and it is the only thing that decides whether voicemail gets you anywhere. One person, every morning, at a fixed time.
A shared mailbox that “everyone” checks is a mailbox nobody checks.
In every plan, even for one person
The voicemail system comes at no extra cost with every plan, from Business Number to Customer Service. Not sure what to record? See our business voicemail greeting examples.
About voicemail
No. The message arrives in your email as an audio file and you play it the way you open any attachment. There is no dial-in code, no app and no separate mailbox.
Yes, you link several addresses to each number. That is also advisable: one address means nothing happens as soon as that person is off.
Yes. Every number has its own voicemail greeting and its own recipients, so your sales line and your support line can each say something different to whoever calls in the evening.
Yes. Then a caller who doesn’t reach anyone hears an engaged tone or goes to another destination you set. That is rarely the better choice, but it is possible.
You record a message on your mobile and send us the audio file, or you use our text-to-speech assistant to generate a professional greeting from text. You can change the greeting at any time.
Yes. In message-only mode, callers are sent straight to voicemail, which is useful for order lines, feedback numbers or tip lines.
Yes. In announcement-only mode, callers hear your message and the call ends automatically without a recording being made. Useful for office closures or temporary changes.
Through the dashboard or by contacting our support team, and you can switch voicemail on or off at any time.
Yes. There is no limit, so you can update the greeting for the season, change it for the holidays or adjust it whenever your situation changes.
Yes. If the queue reaches its set waiting time and nobody is available, callers are offered voicemail instead of being cut off.
