Writing the greeting

What the sentence has to do

The greeting is the pick-up line: what Cantya says before the caller has said anything at all. It has two jobs, and not one more. Say where the caller has landed, naming your business the way you name it yourself. And hand them back the floor.

A good pick-up line fits in one breath. Past ten words or so, the caller checks out mentally and simply waits for it to finish, which costs the first two seconds of what they actually rang about.

Three things to leave out

Opening hours. Someone ringing you at seven in the evening already knows you are shut, and Cantya is not. Reciting the hours on pick-up amounts to opening with an apology.

A mention of automated processing. You do not have to announce the technology, and announcing it changes the way people talk: they shorten, they enunciate, they say less. You can of course do it if your trade or your internal rules require it, but it is not a legal obligation in France for a phone reception.

A promise. « We will ring you back within the hour » ends up in the sentence everybody hears, including on the days it is not true. Promises belong in the rules, where they can depend on the day and the hour.

Reading it back, once, properly

Read it out loud before saving it. A sentence that reads well on the page can trip on the tongue over a liaison or an acronym, and it is the tongue that will say it a few thousand times.

You can change it whenever you like, and the change takes effect on the next call. A shop that changes name, a practice that takes on a new partner: it is one line to correct, not a reconfiguration.