Voice Casting

Episode 5

Welcome to the fifth episode of Voice Casting, a show designed to help you pick the perfect voice for your project.

Last week, you enjoyed part one of our two part series on telephone systems for small business. This week, we’re going to focus in on how to script your voice over and pick the best person to record for your phone system.

When you are writing your telephone voice over script, there are several key elements that you’ll want to include, the first element being an auto-attendant.

An auto attendant is the first voice that a caller will hear when they dial through to your company phone line. The auto attendant greets the caller and establishes trust while branding your company.

For instance, your auto attendant may be scripted to say something like this:

Kim Somers Voice Over

After the caller has heard the auto attendant, the same voice usually guides them through their options, you know, press 1 for this and press 2 for that. This element of your voice over script is called an IVR or Interactive Voice Response.

Why is it there?

You may want your voice actor to direct callers to specific offices or to listen to pre-recorded messages that share useful information such as your regular office hours, what’s on the menu, and so on.

One popular option with callers is the ability to dial zero to reach a representative at any time. Be sure to make that option available to them at the end of your IVR prompts. Phone systems that offer this feature often relieve customers who are becoming agitated or simply don’t have time to listen to the entire menu of options. Surveys across the board have shown that many callers detest having to wait and appreciate the option to press zero to exit the menu and speak directly with a “real” person.

Once your caller has picked the option that best meets their needs, they will then be directed to the extension associated with their request. Be sure to map that out when you are setting up your telephone system. Know which extensions are paired with the numbers and symbols you ask the caller to press so there are no hiccups in the process for your caller.

Now, while all of this is happening, you have an excellent opportunity to market to your caller while they are waiting on hold.

In a previous episode, I said that I would teach you how to turn waiting time into selling time, so here we go. It’s quite simple.

When you are scripting your telephone voice over prompts, be sure to include some on-hold messaging. The on-hold messaging follows the Interactive Voice Response.

For best results, write three or four courtesy messages and an equal number of marketing messages that will alternate while a caller is waiting to be served. When your callers are on hold, you can gently remind them that you appreciate their time and their business. Courtesy messages are meant to soothe callers while they are waiting.

On the flip side, you can also up-sell your customer through a marketing message. After all, you do have a captive audience! There’s no better time to let the caller know about a special that is going on, an update to your service, or anything relevant to your organization. Include some persuasive messaging and the caller will have a newly inspired reason to do more business with you if interested.

Something else that you will want to have recorded is a company voicemail message. This voice mail will act as a generic greeting for any messages that are left outside of personal voicemail. Along those lines, consider having specific personal voicemail greetings recorded in the event that you or your staff would prefer the voice talent to do so instead of recording it yourself.

OK, let’s pretend that your caller has phoned after hours and there is no one available to take their call.

At this point, you have a couple of options to consider:

1. Just let them sit on the line until they eventually navigate their way to a voice mail box
2. Or, you can set up an after hours message that will thank the caller for phoning and provide instructions to leave a message or phone back on the next business day.

The same goes for holidays. If you’d like to have a special message prepared for statutory holidays, you can customize the message for your customers and present it to them at the appropriate time.

Finally, consider the type of voice that you want to brand your company and serve your customers. The majority of all telephone system recordings are recorded by female voice talents, however, you may find that a male voice is more suited to your industry or organization, especially if you represent an industry traditionally associated with men.

Remember to think about the gender, age, accent, style, and think of your audience.

If you are serving an older customer set, think of casting a middle aged or senior voice for your voice talent. If you serve predominantly young adults or thirty-somethings, select a voice geared to their age group. Depending on what your company offers, you’ll want to match the voice with your services. For instance, if your messaging is for a church or religious center, consider a comforting voice over style with mild authoritativeness. Alternatively, if you are a ticket hub for sports events, pick an upbeat, energetic voice style that best exudes your brand and speaks directly to your caller.

Lastly, consider the accent that you want your callers to hear. Since Voices.com is based in Canada, we opted to have a Canadian voice talent from the province of Ontario record ours. Actually, you heard her earlier in this podcast. Kim Somers met all of our voice casting requirements including gender, style, accent and age.

You might want someone to record who has a different accent altogether who sounds exotic or foreign. A foreign accented voice over may give your callers the impression that you are a global entity. While this may sound attractive, it could also confuse people if you serve a mainly local customer base. Your customers, should they all be from the city you are located in or the surrounding area, would likely expect to hear someone with the same accent or regional dialect that they have.

You could say that your voice over will only be as effective as the voice talent that you cast, so script and choose wisely!

In our next episode, we’ll talk about how to pair the male and female voice for radio commercials and hear from some “husband and wife” teams.

I’m Stephanie Ciccarelli. Thank you for listening and thank you for subscribing to Voice Casting. We’ll see you next week.