Missing a call is one thing. Forgetting to check the voicemail that follows is another. Even with a flexible business phone system, you’re not checking it every second of your workday. This means voicemail messages can fall through the cracks, and your business loses revenue.
With the help of a VoIP phone service, you can send those voicemails to email to boost your team’s responsiveness.
We’ll dive into what voicemail to email is, how it works, and how it can benefit your business. We’ll also explain how you can start sending voicemails to email with the platform rated #1 in customer satisfaction.
How does voicemail to email work?
When you set up voicemail to email, your VoIP service will instantly send new voicemail messages to designated email addresses.
Phone systems that offer this feature typically create an .mp3 or .wav file for your voicemail message. Then, they attach the file to an automated email or provide a link to your voicemail recording. You’ll receive each message notification as a new email.
Your email message will also tell you the date and time the caller left a message, as well as what phone number you need to call back.
Voicemail to email vs visual voicemail
Keep in mind that a voicemail to email service can work differently from visual voicemail. Visual voicemail often lives inside your phone system, where you can read transcripts, listen to messages, reply, or call back from the same thread.
VoIP voicemail to email simply pushes those recordings to your email so you can access them from there. You can get both features with a business phone system like Quo, formerly OpenPhone.
How to send voicemail notifications to your email inbox
Setting up voicemail notifications with a VoIP service is a simple process. Once you complete it, your email messages will be automated every time. When you connect Quo to your email, you can even set up automated emails about text messages and missed calls as part of the same process.
Here are the six steps you need to complete to set up voicemail notifications:
- Click Settings from the left-hand menu in the web or desktop app.
- Under Workspace, click Phone numbers.
- Select the Quo number you’d like to receive notifications for.
- From your phone number’s settings, scroll down to Integrations and click Connect to your email.
- By default, the email on your Quo account will receive notifications. Remove the default email address or add additional recipients by clicking “…” if needed.
- Modify what events you’ll be notified about via email. You can toggle on and off the options for:
- Text messages, including SMS and MMS
- Missed calls
- Voicemails with transcripts
Voicemail to email comes standard with all Quo pricing plans. You can benefit from this helpful feature whether you’re a solopreneur, small business owner, or running a large enterprise.
The option to push voice messages to Slack is also available to all Quo users.
5 Benefits of sending voicemails to email
Getting more emails isn’t exactly a professional’s dream — we get it. But the heaviest email users spend 8.8 hours a week on email. Plus, most users are running email in the background and are interrupted every two minutes. Incoming messages catch our eye, so it’s clear that email is one of the most convenient business communication channels around.
Here are the top benefits of sending voicemails to email:
1. Decrease response times
Response times can make or break a client relationship. Whether you’re selling to prospects or providing customer support, your clients want you to be there when they need you most. If you miss their call, they expect you to check your voicemail and call back in a timely manner.
Voicemail to email helps you stay responsive no matter where you are by making your messages easy to check on the go. Instead of waiting until you’re back at your desk, you’ll get an instant email notification with your voicemail recordings.
A provider like Quo will also transcribe your voicemails. So even if you’re next to the loudest amp at a music festival, you can see how urgent a call is without looking for a quiet place to listen.
2. Call back with context
When customers take the time to leave you a voicemail, they don’t want to repeat themselves. If you call back without hearing that context, your client or prospect can feel frustrated.
Voicemail sent to email makes new messages hard to miss. All you need to do is tap on your audio recording or read the transcription. With Quo, your voicemail email will also include the caller’s number and the time they reached out. Then, you’ll have the context you need to lead a winning conversation and boost customer satisfaction.
3. Improve productivity
When you’re constantly checking your emails, it makes perfect sense to send your voicemails to email too. Jumping from platform to platform will only slow you down. If your cloud phone system isn’t your most-used app, taking advantage of email automation will streamline your workflow.
But what if you’re constantly on your VoIP app? Voicemail to email still allows you to choose the most convenient channel for you at that moment. The ball is in your court to email or call back. It also helps during focused work sessions. You can mute calls, stay heads-down, and still get voicemail updates delivered quietly to your inbox.
4. Keep your team looped in
One advantage of VoIP phone systems is you can choose who you want to receive email notifications. Anyone relevant — whether it’s your admins or the colleagues sharing the phone number — can receive the message on the go or in their office.
You won’t have to forward messages over and over like you’re playing hot potato. Simply let your VoIP system do the work.
5. Organize your records
For many businesses, voicemails are important records to maintain. By sending voicemails to email, you can more easily organize past voicemails in folders with labels. For example, a property manager could create folders for maintenance requests and new inquiries. This makes it easy to track conversations over time, especially since the caller ID is saved as your recording’s file name.
Plus, better organization means you can easily pull up the information you need when you need it.
Quo: Boost efficiency by sending voicemails to email
Setting up voicemail to email is a simple way to make your business voicemail messages more convenient to access. With Quo, you don’t need to listen to messages — you can simply read transcripts.
Quo also gives you access to AI call transcriptions and summaries, so you always have a clear record of what callers said and what needs to happen next. And with Sona, Quo’s AI voice agent, calls can be answered automatically. It captures messages and sends texts on your behalf, even when you’re unavailable.
These features help your team respond to calls promptly and work more efficiently.
Sign up for a free trial of Quo and take your voicemail wherever you go.
FAQs
Voicemail to email is a VoIP phone system feature that forwards voicemail messages as audio files straight to your email inbox. It allows you to access voicemail recordings from any mobile device or computer via email — with no need to call your voicemail. If you want to read your voicemails, some business phone systems also email voicemail transcriptions.
Voicemail to email is all about making your voicemails more accessible so one missed call won’t stop your workflow.
Setting up voicemail notifications with a VoIP service is a simple process. Once you complete it, you can be automatically notified every time. When you connect Quo to your email, you can also set up automated emails about text messages and missed calls.
Voicemail to email will work for most industries, but there’s an important exception to keep in mind. If your team handles Protected Health Information, or PHI, the rules get stricter. Your phone system will need to meet HIPAA’s Privacy and Security Rules, and so does any tool you forward PHI to.
Quo is HIPAA compliant for data stored and managed inside the app, including voicemails. But once a voicemail is sent to an email provider like Gmail, it leaves Quo’s secure environment. That means your email setup must also be configured for HIPAA compliance before you rely on voicemail to email in a healthcare setting.
Voicemail to email is available on all Quo plans, including the free trial, so you can try it right away. Once set up, you’ll be able to automatically forward voicemails to email on your iPhone, Android, and other devices.
Voicemail to email is included with every Quo plan. The base plan starts at $15 per user per month, and the feature is also available during the free trial. You can turn it on or off at any time in your Workspace settings.
Yes. If someone calls your team’s shared number and no one picks up, the call goes to your shared voicemail. The caller leaves a message, and Quo sends the recording to the email addresses you’ve added for that number. This helps your team follow up faster and keeps messages from slipping through the cracks.
Most voicemail in emails arrive within seconds, and the majority land in your inbox in under a minute. But delivery times can vary slightly depending on voicemail size and overall system activity.
