What Makes a Great Phone Greeting for Your Business?

Short answer: A great phone greeting is short, polite and easy to act on. Say who you are, offer only the options most callers need, say each option before its number, give a quick way to reach a person, and tell callers your hours. Then test it on a real phone with real people before you switch it on.

Below you will find each part of a business phone greeting, example scripts in English and Malay, a checklist, and demo clips to listen to.

Why the greeting matters

The greeting is often the first thing a customer hears from you. They called because they want something: a booking, an answer, a refund. A good greeting confirms they reached the right place, gets them to the right answer quickly, and sounds like a business that respects their time.

The four parts of a phone greeting

Most phone systems play some mix of these four pieces.

Practical guidance by voiceover.my, 3 November 2026. Not a published standard.

IVR stands for interactive voice response. It is simply the “press one for this, press two for that” menu.

Write a short welcome line

Say thank you and say your name. That is usually enough.

Skip the slogan and the promotion. A W3C accessibility note on voice menus advises avoiding unnecessary or distracting information, such as promotional information.

Example (English): “Thank you for calling [Business name].”

Example (Malay): “Terima kasih kerana menghubungi [nama perniagaan].”

These are our own examples. Add your business name.

Keep menu options few and in order of demand

List the reasons people call you. The staff who answer the phone usually know the top three. Then follow three rules:

1. Fewer options. Offer only what most callers need. Fold rare requests into “speak to our team”.
2. Most common first. Put the reason most people call at number one.
3. One key for a person. Choose a key that always reaches a human, and keep it the same everywhere.

The W3C note suggests a known reserved digit, such as zero, that callers can press at any time to reach a person, and advises avoiding unnecessary steps or options.

Say the option, then the number

Compare these two lines:

• “Press two for payments.”
• “For payments, press two.”

The second is easier. The caller decides if the option fits, and only then needs the number. The W3C note’s voice menus user story describes callers who need to hear the option before the number, so they do not have to remember a digit while processing the words, and who need pauses between options.

Our customer-service demos follow the option-first pattern. Here is the exact English transcript from the Sulafat phone menu demo:

“Thank you for calling. Please listen carefully to the following options. To check a booking, press one. For payment help, press two. To ask about opening hours, press three. If you would like to speak with an agent, please hold and your call will be connected. To hear this menu again, press zero.”

One honest note: in that demo script, zero repeats the menu. If you follow the W3C suggestion, use zero for a person and another key to repeat the menu. Whatever you choose, keep it consistent.

Offer Malay and English without making callers wait

Many Malaysian businesses serve callers in both languages. Use a short bilingual opening, then a language choice, then play each menu fully in the chosen language.

Example (bilingual opening): “Terima kasih kerana menghubungi [nama perniagaan]. Thank you for calling [Business name]. Untuk Bahasa Melayu, tekan satu. For English, press two.”

Each language choice is spoken in its own language, so every caller understands their own option.

Here is the Malay menu from our demos, as an exact transcript from the Iapetus phone menu greeting:

“Terima kasih kerana menghubungi kami. Sila dengar pilihan berikut dengan teliti. Untuk menyemak tempahan, tekan satu. Untuk bantuan pembayaran, tekan dua. Untuk bertanya tentang waktu operasi, tekan tiga. Jika anda ingin bercakap dengan petugas, sila tunggu sebentar dan panggilan anda akan disambungkan. Untuk mendengar menu ini sekali lagi, tekan sifar.”

The same scripts are voiced by ElevenLabs voices in the Cikgu Aisyah demo (Malay) and the Matilda demo (English). Hearing the same words in different voices helps you find your tone.

Business hours and hold messages

Business hours

After-hours callers need two facts: when you are open and what to do now.

Example scripts written by voiceover.my for this article. Replace the hours and channels with your own.

Write numbers and times the way they should be spoken. “Nine a.m.” and “sembilan pagi” are safer for an AI voice than “9am”, which may be read in an odd way. Our demo scripts spell out “press one” and “tekan satu” for the same reason.

Hold messages

A hold message repeats, so it must stay pleasant on the fifth listen. Thank the caller, say someone will answer, and offer another way to get help. Avoid adverts here too.

Choose a polite, clear, calm tone

Aim for polite, clear and calm: not too cheerful, never pushy.

With an AI voice, you can steer this with a short instruction. Google’s Gemini text-to-speech documentation says you can guide the style, accent, pace and tone of the audio. Several of our customer-service demos were sent the style “clear, polite, professional”, and each demo page shows exactly what was sent.

On our demo pages, “As requested” shows what we asked the provider for, such as the model, voice and style. “Human-reviewed” shows what a person confirmed by listening, such as whether the voice fits the scene. The two are kept separate on purpose. Only adult voices are used.

Use “sila” and “terima kasih” in Malay, and “please” and “thank you” in English. Keep the pace steady: a rushed menu makes callers listen twice.

Test it with real callers

A script that reads well on paper can still confuse on a phone line.

1. Play it on a real call. Load the audio into your phone system (check the format it needs) and call from a mobile.
2. Give testers a task. Ask a few people to call with a goal, such as “find out if we are open on Saturday” or “reach someone about a payment”.
3. Include different callers. Ask someone who prefers Malay, someone who prefers English, and an older relative or customer.
4. Watch where they hesitate. If someone presses the wrong key or asks “what was the number again?”, rewrite that line.
5. Try a noisy place. If the welcome line is lost in the noise of a busy shop, shorten it.

Phone greeting checklist

• The welcome line is one sentence with our business name.
• The menu has only the options most callers need, most common first.
• Every option is said before its number.
• One key always reaches a person, and it is the same on every menu.
• There is a short pause after each option.
• Malay and English prompts are each spoken in their own language.
• Hours, times and numbers are written the way they should be spoken.
• Public holiday closures have their own message.
• The hold message is short, calm and free of adverts.
• The tone is polite, clear and calm, with an adult voice.
• We tested on a real phone call with a few real callers.
• Someone updates the greeting when hours or options change.

Listen before you write

As of 3 November 2026, voiceover.my has 169 demo clips (95 Malay, 74 English) across 12 situations, from Google Gemini and ElevenLabs. Twenty of them are customer service and phone-menu clips, ten in each language. Every clip shows the exact transcript, voice and request, so you can adapt a script that works.