In Friday’s post, we talked about how to compose a voice mail greeting. But how about leaving a voice mail message? Here are some ideas to make your corporate communicaton more effective.

1. Be brief. Assume the person listening to your message is up to his eyeballs in work, or going through a crowded airport security line. Just provide the short version–background details can wait until the actual conversation.

2. Leave a callback number. You can’t always assume the person has caller ID or remembers your phone number.

3. Say the callback number slowly. I’m a dimwit with numbers. Sometimes I have replay a voice mail message three times to transcribe the number correctly. If you shoot out the numbers like machine gun fire, the listener might surrender and not call back at all. And don’t forget your area code.

4. Leave the callback number at the beginning of your message. If the listener needs to replay your message to get the number, at least she won’t have to listen to the rest of the message first.

5. Give the listener a time frame in which to call back. Do you need an answer within five minutes, five hours or five days? Help the listener manage her time. She will appreciate the courtesy.

6. Give the listener time to respond before you call someone else. It’s tempting for a caller with a serious problem to call several people at the same time, hoping that one will respond immediately and help. Two problems with this. First, it tends to cause mass confusion at the other end, which may actually impede the resolution of your problem. Second, the next time you call, the listener will head for the break room, assuming you’ve already corraled someone else into handling your problem.

Small matters? Perhaps. But remember–sometimes a few small drops of oil are what keep the wheels of commerce rolling.