30 professional business voicemail greetings to copy (salon, trades & more)

Most callers who hit voicemail don’t leave a message. They hang up and call the next business. A good greeting won’t fix that on its own, but it gives the caller a reason to stay: who they reached, when they’ll hear back, and the fastest way to get what they need. Below are 30 scripts you can copy, grouped by situation and business type.

What every business voicemail greeting needs

• Your business name first. They may have called five places. Confirm they reached the right one in the first three seconds.
• When you’ll call back. “Within the hour” or “by 10 a.m. tomorrow” beats “as soon as possible.”
• What to leave. Name, number and what they need, so your callback can start with an answer.
• A faster option. A booking link by text, your website, or an emergency line.
• Under 20 seconds. Long greetings lose people before the beep.

Standard greetings (any business)

1. The simple professional greeting:

2. With your hours:

3. Busy with a customer:

4. Point them to booking:

5. Text instead:

6. Personal, for owner-operators:

After-hours voicemail greetings

7. Closed for the day:

8. Closed, with online booking:

9. Weekend:

10. With an emergency line:

For more on handling the calls that come in at night, see our after-hours playbook.

Holiday voicemail greetings

11. General holiday closure:

12. Holiday, with booking:

13. Vacation, small team:

Salon, spa and studio voicemail greetings

14. Mid-appointment:

15. Friendly and short:

16. For a solo stylist or artist:

17. Spa:

18. Cancellations and changes:

Want the live-call version? See our salon phone scripts.

Trades voicemail greetings (plumbing, HVAC, electrical and more)

19. On a job:

20. Plumbing, with emergencies:

21. HVAC:

22. Electrical:

23. Estimates:

24. Owner on the tools:

Office and professional services

25. Law, accounting or consulting:

26. Real estate:

27. Coaching or lessons:

Bilingual greetings (English and Spanish)

28. Bilingual standard:

29. Spanish voicemail greeting:

30. Bilingual after hours:

How to record a greeting people listen to

• Write it, then read it out loud twice. Cut any word you trip over.
• Record somewhere quiet. A car with the engine off works better than a busy shop.
• Smile while you talk. It sounds corny, but callers can hear it.
• Call your own number to test it. Check the volume and the length. Aim for 15 to 20 seconds.
• Update it for holidays and changes. An old holiday greeting in February tells callers nobody’s checking.

Frequently asked questions

What should a professional voicemail greeting say? Your business name, that you can’t take the call, what to leave (name, number, reason), when you’ll call back, and a faster option like online booking. Keep it under 20 seconds.

How long should a business voicemail greeting be? 15 to 20 seconds. Anything longer and callers hang up before the tone.

Should I include my hours? Yes, on your after-hours greeting. It tells callers when to expect a callback and stops repeat calls while you’re closed.

Should my voicemail greeting be in Spanish too? If a good share of your customers speak Spanish, yes. A short bilingual greeting (scripts 28 to 30) keeps them from hanging up.

The better fix: answer the call instead

Every greeting above is a backup plan. Most callers still won’t leave a message, and the ones who do are waiting on you. An AI answering service picks up instead: it answers in your business’s name, quotes your real prices and hours, books the appointment or job on your calendar, and texts you a summary. Set it to answer only after hours if you want to keep taking daytime calls yourself. Scheduley starts free with a business phone number and booking page, and AI calls cost $2 per minute.

If you’re keeping voicemail, pair it with a fast text-back. Here are 15 missed-call text templates.