Fifteen words takes about six seconds to say, which is about as long as a caller will listen before wondering whether they reached the right place. Below are twelve greetings, each in 15 words or fewer, grouped by the situation you are in: live answer, after hours, busy, holiday, and an AI-assisted answer.
Every greeting does the same three jobs in order. It names the business so the caller knows they dialed correctly. It says something about the situation (closed, busy, on a job). And it tells the caller what to do next. Greetings that skip the third job are why people hang up without leaving a message.
The examples use a fictional roofing company, Hollis Roofing. Replace the name, hours and numbers with your own. If you want longer scripts for voicemail only, with space for hours and callback times, see eight voicemail scripts. This page is the short version.
What a greeting has to do in five seconds
Callers decide quickly. If the first sentence is "Thank you for calling, your call is very important to us," they have heard nothing useful yet. Lead with the business name, because a person calling three roofers in a row needs to know which one picked up. Use plain words, and speak at a normal pace, slightly slower than you think you need. Skip anything that sounds like a recording of a recording.
Our piece on writing a phone script nobody notices covers the tone, and the one on what voicemail greetings really say shows what callers hear in the usual wording.
Live answer: three versions
1. You answer your own line. Short, warm and direct.
Hollis Roofing, this is Dana. How can I help you?
2. A front desk. More formal, with a hand-off.
Good morning, Hollis Roofing. Dana speaking. How may I direct your call?
3. A sorting question. Useful when existing customers and new ones need different handling.
Hollis Roofing, Dana here. Is this about an existing job or a new one?
After hours: two versions
The after-hours greeting must say when you are back and when the caller will hear from you. Two sentences of that and a short request is enough.
4. Closed, with a callback promise.
Hollis Roofing. We're closed until 7. Leave a message and we'll call you by 9.
5. Closed, with an emergency route. Use it only if someone really will answer.
Hollis Roofing is closed. For an active leak, press 1. Otherwise leave a message.
Our guide to handling after-hours calls without being on call shows how to set up the emergency route so that it does not become a 2 a.m. habit.
Busy or on another call: two versions
6. Live, when you can answer but need a moment.
Hollis Roofing. I'm finishing another call. Can I put you on a short hold?
7. Voicemail, when you are working. Telling callers why you missed them makes it feel like a business, not a dead phone.
Hollis Roofing, out on a job. Leave your name and number. We'll call back today.
Holiday and closed days: two versions
Change this greeting on the day before you close, and change it back on the day you open. Set a reminder on your phone, because forgetting is the usual failure.
8. A simple closure.
Hollis Roofing is closed for Thanksgiving. We reopen Monday at 7. Leave a message.
9. A long closure with an emergency option.
Hollis Roofing, closed through January 2. For storm emergencies, press 1. Or leave a message.
AI-assisted answer: three versions, and the disclosure
If an AI answers any of your calls, say so in the first sentence. Callers who feel fooled hang up angry, and a few states have disclosure rules for automated systems. Callers who are told plainly mostly carry on and ask their question. Our piece on whether callers mind AI answering explains why. The answer page on AI answering your phone covers what it can do.
10. During business hours.
Hollis Roofing's AI assistant here. I can book a visit or take a message.
11. After hours.
Hollis Roofing's AI assistant. The office is closed, but I can book your visit now.
12. When the caller asks for a person. Answer honestly and give them a path.
I'm an AI assistant. I can take your details and have Dana call you back.
If you let an AI answer the number you already have (Rocketship does this through call forwarding), give it an opening line like 10 or 11, plus your hours, services and prices, so what it says matches what you would say. Keep the promise in number 12 true: if you say Dana will call back, Dana has to.
If you record calls, say so in the greeting or just after it. Some states require everyone on a call to agree to the recording, so a short notice protects you.
Three ways a good greeting goes wrong
The holiday greeting that is still playing in February. It makes the business sound abandoned, and it happens more than any other mistake, which is why the reminder matters. The emergency option that rings an unanswered phone: if you say "press 1 for an emergency," a real person must pick up within a minute or two, or you have promised something you can't deliver. And hours spoken in a rush, such as "open Monday through Friday eight to five thirty Saturday by appointment." Say each fact in its own short sentence, or leave hours off the recording and put them on your website and listing.
Background noise is the quiet fourth one. A greeting recorded on a job site, with a compressor running behind it, sounds careless. Record in a parked truck or a closed room, hold the phone a hand's width from your mouth, and do two takes.
Test it by calling yourself
Call your business number from a phone that is not yours, on speaker, in a noisy place such as the truck cab. Time it with a stopwatch: aim for under ten seconds before the caller is asked to do something. Then ask someone who has never heard it to tell you the business name and what the caller should do next. If they cannot, the greeting is too long or too vague. Test again after any change to hours, any holiday swap, and any time you change phone providers, because greetings get lost when a number moves.
A greeting helps the calls you get, and it sets the tone, but the bigger gain comes from the call being answered at all. Our piece on answering the phone professionally covers the live conversation, once the greeting is done.
Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own, and it answers the number you already have so the calls that outreach creates are not missed. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required. Answering your existing number is included; a dedicated line is $5 a month.