744 – Very important part of doing business: Tom talks Voice Mail

Episode 744 – Voice Mail
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 744 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today, we're going to talk about an earth shattering brand new topic of voicemail. You say, Hey, Tom, I thought you were supposed to be Mr. Cutting Bleeding Edge. No, I'm not. I'm dull edge technology. But you say, well, what's the big deal? Voice mail has been around since Superman was a baby. No, the thing is, there's plenty of people with loads of money that want to talk to you on the telephone. You can't depend on text and email totally anymore. Or ever. Really? You should have been paying attention to this. And what you say on your voicemail can can make a big impression on somebody like me who could give you a lot of money. All right. Hope you didn't miss episode 743. That was a study challenge. And if you did one little tiny thing and report your results to me, then you get a big shout out on Screw the Commute podcast on a future episode. So that was episode 743. And while you're at it, make sure you didn't miss episode 742, which is a blockbuster on how to increase the amount of money an individual customer gives you, and that can mean enormous amounts of money to you, especially over time. So check that out. Anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, then the episode number. That was 742. The study challenge was 743 where you get a big shout out and this is 744 voice mail. All right. Make sure you listen to me on TikTok at tiktok.com/@digitalmultimillionaire and grab a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree.

[00:02:12] All right. Let's get to the main event event. I've actually heard a voice mail saying we'll get back to you within 48 hours, not counting weekends and holidays. What kind of what kind of moron would put that message out? I mean, that could be 96 hours. I could be dead in 96 hours. And you know what? I'm probably not going to be dead. I'm going to call your competitor. That's what I'm going to do. And screw you because you're sending a message. You don't care about me. You don't care about my problems. You know, you just want to take care of yourself. So go ahead and take care of yourself while your competitor takes care of me. That's just stupid now. My voicemail message is a part of it is I'll get back to you as soon as humanly possible. Now, what kind of message is that sending? I'm sending I'm saying you're important and I'm going to break my neck to take care of you. You see the difference there, folks? 96 hours I might get back to you or I'm going to get back to you if I have to crawl over broken glass.

[00:03:20] All right. That's the difference. So your first impression really matters. And and, you know, it should be professional. Yeah. Although I'm going to show you some humorous ones a little bit later. And it also should be clear, you know, I get these messages where it sounds like somebody was in a vehicle with the windows open and it's like I'm on the road, I'm working. I'm I'm on another job. You know, that's just stupid. You know, that's sending the message that you're not professional. So make sure it's clear and also give them every piece of information that they need. I mean, I have a vet that I really like. I mean, this is not a veteran. This is a veterinarian, and I really like them. But boy, do we get off on a rocky start. I mean, they don't even know this. This is from my point of view, it's an hour and a half away. I love them. They're really great. But they didn't bother to put on their website or change their voicemail that saying, hey, we're not going to be in on this Wednesday because of some this, that or the other. I don't know what it was, maybe some training session they were having somewhere else. I get there after an hour and a half drive, nobody's there and there's no sign on the door that says, what's going on? Nothing. So that's no good because, you know, three hours they could have I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars there over time, but they could have lost me right there and was lucky.

[00:04:50] Luckily, the person that referred me said, Oh, give him another chance, Tom, you'll really, you know. And so I did. But, you know, a lot of times you don't have somebody out there cheering for you, telling people to go ahead and, and and deal with you, even if you're your messaging is stupid. So give them all the message that they need and you can change it. Voicemail is not hard to change if you say, hey, for all our holiday hours are going to be or anything, or we're having in-service training so we won't be able to get back to you until tomorrow, anything to give the people the information that they need currently and change your website to reflect that to you should be able to do that. If you're in my training, you do know how to do that. Okay, so everybody's crazy about this artificial intelligence and chat, GPT and all that. So I said, okay, chat GPT, Give me ten voicemail messages that show that I care about the customer and I pick three of them here. And remember, this artificial intelligence isn't perfect, that's for sure. So two of them are good. One of them is not. So here, here's one. Hello, this is Tom Antion. I'm not available to take your call right now, but please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

[00:06:07] Okay, that's good. But when I threw that term humanly in there, it takes it to another level that I'm going to take care of, you see? So next one. Number two, you've reached Tom Antion. Unfortunately, I can't come to the phone right now, but please leave a message and I'll return your call as soon as I can. Now, again, I'm going to put as soon as humanly possible. Where? As soon as I can. Now, this third one. Listen to this third one. Thank you for calling. This is Tom Antion. Please leave a detailed message and I'll return your call as soon as I'm available. Oh, no, no, no. Again, technically, it's true. It's good. But, you know, it's just not. I'm available when that means I'm more important than you. And so whenever I can squeeze out some time, I might call you back. That's the message that one sending. So, no, I don't like that one. I'm always going to put as soon as humanly possible on mine. And it works like a charm for 100 years now. Okay, Now, depending on the nature of your business. Now, I could get away with this because I'm kind of known. I mean, I've done a thousand comic speeches, 2000 more presentations, business presentations that were all humorous in some fashion and in 12 countries.

[00:07:28] So I could get I'm known for this and I joke around on these podcasts, teasing with people all the time, you know? So I kind of am known for for being offbeat and funny so I could get away with a humorous one. So you have to think, does it make sense for my business? Maybe you're an ice cream shop. I mean, I don't know. But something that's more frivolous or fun than the typical, you know, doctor's office. Right? So here's and I saw so I told ChatGPT to give me some humorous voicemail messages. So I picked a couple of them out here. So you've reached the voicemail of Tom Antion. I'm either solving world hunger or taking a nap. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. So I would, of course, put as soon as humanly possible. All right. Another one ChatGPT gave me. Hello. This is Tom Antion. If you're a telemarketer, please press one to be added to my ignore list. Otherwise, leave a message and I'll get back to you soon. All right. So not not knee slappingly funny, but, you know, leaning towards the humorous side. And third one was. Hi, it's Tom Antion. I'm currently out of the office, but if you leave a message with a funny joke, I promise to return your call. And again, I would put as soon as humanly possible.

[00:08:48] So, you got to pay attention to these little things. See, over time, they add up if you plan on business for a while. Like I said, it's not as earth shattering. Immediate money. I mean, it could be. But as selling more to your your your customer group like. Episode. What was that? Let's see. That was. That was episode 742. But over time it could add up to hundreds of new customers because you sounded good on your voicemail and you got back. And plus, you can't just sound good on your voicemail. You better darn well get back to people fast. And that's why I say as soon as humanly possible. And guess what, folks? I do it even to this day where I could just do nothing. I still do it because I'm a business, small business advocate, and I want to take care of customers. That's the key to my success, is I've taken care of customers for 46 years, I mean, 29 online, but 46 overall. And it's added up to enormous amounts of money, goodwill. People refer me that can't even afford me, you know, stuff like that. So there's all kinds of good benefits of paying attention to these little details that send the message, I care about you more than me. All right. Business wise anyway. All right. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I'll catch you all in the next episode. See you later.