Do Your Auto Attendant Phone Greetings Sound Amateur?

Remember what a big deal the press made last year about the voice of the iPhone’s Siri? In every country, Apple held auditions to get the voice flavor just right–the correct tone, elocution, energy–and enjoyed the buzz about who each of these voiceover talents were on every continent. Apple knew that an attractive-sounding, resonant voice would make their device even more prestigious and important to use–and that those positive feelings would be transferred to their brand.

Apple was right. But they’re not the only brand figuring it out.

Demand Increasing For Professional Auto Attendant Phone Greetings

I’ve watched an interesting uptick in requests for auto attendant greetings into our studios here at Easy On Hold. Also known as IVR, voicemail and auto attendant phone greetings, these are the “Welcome to ABC Company, press 1 for sales, 2 for technical support” greetings that you automatically hear instead of a live human when you call a company. Where these projects used to just trickle in, now they comprise 35% of our business and keep our announcers very busy, providing recordings that our clients use to help their callers navigate through complex phone trees or even simple after-hours voicemail boxes.

I think our clients who invest in these recordings are brilliant.

Rather than just ask the guy who installed the phone system or the employee down the hall “with a nice voice” to record their phone trees and greetings, they hire professional announcers, like us, to provide the best result possible. These clients understand that the slickest, hippest, cleverest advertising in the world can fall flat when the boring, ordinary recording at company headquarters or call center doesn’t match the brand image. It’s a letdown for the would-be customer who hears the disconnect between image and reality. “You’re really not as extraordinary as I thought. In fact, you’re really rather ordinary. *Sigh* Just like all the others.”

Worth The Investment?

Are you convinced that hiring professional voiceover talent for auto attendants is worth the investment? If not, consider this–JD Powers & Associates reports that 73% of the total call experience in the U.S. alone is handled by automated attendants or IVRs–not a live person. And here’s a stat from Boldchat, the live chat experts, who admit that in the U.S., as many people still favor using the telephone to do business as they do live chat. And here’s one of my favorite quotes, from Zappo’s chief Tony Hsieh: “Our belief is that as unsexy and low-tech as it may sound, the telephone is one of the best branding devices out there.”

Your auto attendant recording is your voice to the world. It tells your customers how serious you are about your brand and how serious you are about them. Make the initial hello as beautiful, warm and welcoming as it can possibly be.

We can help produce the perfect auto attendant and IVR recordings for your company.