Unless you call your business often, you may not think about the quality of the voices that answer your phones. In the first few seconds of an interaction with your brand, callers will decide whether your company is professional and trustworthy or amateur and unreliable. Professional business voices for IVR and Auto Attendant can make all the difference in creating a lasting impression on callers. Take a few minutes to explore the world of professional voices for business. Learn how to best use both human and artificial intelligence voices, and pick up a few how-to tips from the experts.
Table of contents
- Professional voices convey brand values
- Understanding IVR and Auto Attendant Services
- The Importance of Professional Business Voices for IVR and Auto Attendant
- Professional human voices
- AI (Artificial Intelligence) text-to-speech voice service
- Professional voice business recordings for IVAR and auto-attendant in multiple languages
- Telephone Greetings And Prompts: Best Tips
- Consider Spanish Telephone Greetings And Other Languages
- Enhance Your Business Image with Professional Business Voices for IVR
Professional voices convey brand values
Brand values are the core principles and beliefs guiding a company’s actions, decisions, and customer interactions. They define what your company stands for and help shape its identity. When callers reach you on the phone, the quality of the voice they hear can embody your brand’s values. From warm and inviting tones to authoritative and confident cadences, the right voice can elevate your IVR and auto attendant services to new heights. Stay ahead of the curve and make your brand resonate with customers from the very first “Hello.”
Understanding IVR and Auto Attendant Services
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and auto attendant services are essential to any business using automation in the communications platform. Proper call-handling processes provide customers with a seamless experience while reducing the workload on human operators. IVR systems use pre-recorded voice prompts, enabling callers to navigate through menus by pressing keys on their telephone keypad or speaking their requests.
However, as you implement IVR and Auto Attendant Services, think about the last time you were greeted by a robotic voice offering irrelevant offerings and a disappointing view of your business. Let’s look at a short story about how IVR and auto-attendant greetings damaged a company’s image and hurt its business.
The Auto Attendant Loop of Doom
Sarah had just purchased a new laptop from a well-known electronics retailer. Excited to set it up, she quickly realized that the screen was defective. Determined to resolve the issue, she decided to call the company’s customer service. She dialed the number and was greeted by a robotic and impersonal automated voice: “You have called Tech World. Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed.”
The automated voice continued, “Please enter your order number or account number.” After wondering, “Do I have an order number?” she was met with another set of options. She pressed “2” for technical support.
“Please hold while we transfer your call,” the voice said. Sarah waited, listening to the repetitive hold music. After a few minutes, the automated voice returned, “We’re sorry, all our representatives are currently busy. Press star to return to the main menu.”
Frustrated but determined, Sarah hung up and called back. This time, she tried a different option, hoping to reach a human. She pressed “3” for billing inquiries, thinking they might transfer her to the right department. Instead, she was met with another set of prompts, asking for her billing information.
Like many of us, Sarah found herself stuck in an endless loop of options, each leading back to the same automated responses. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t reach a real person. Her frustration grew as she realized she was trapped in the auto-attendant loop of doom.
Feeling defeated, Sarah decided to contact a different business to solve her problem. But as she hit the green call button on her phone, she couldn’t help but wonder if she was about to enter another… auto-attendant loop of doom.
What went wrong?
- Sarah was frustrated. Automated systems can be frustrating, especially if they are difficult to navigate or don’t provide customers with needed options. This can lead to a negative customer experience.
- The voice was cold and robotic. Many companies use inexpensive text-to-speech options or amateur-sounding greetings. Even if you can’t provide every caller with a real person to answer the phone, remember that a professional voice will be a more polished, professional experience.
- Tech World lost a customer. Sarah felt Tech World could not handle her call well, so she couldn’t trust them to solve her problem.
- That lingering feeling. Negative experiences can linger and lead to harmful word-of-mouth and online reviews, damaging a company’s reputation.
The Importance of Professional Business Voices for IVR and Auto Attendant
While professional voices alone aren’t a fix-all for poor caller experiences, an experienced voice recording business like Easy On Hold has the experience needed to guide you toward success. The voice is the primary medium through which your brand communicates with customers. Today, however, you can choose to use human voice talent or AI text-to-speech voices for your IVR and auto attendant. With a service like Easy On Hold, you can choose to use a combination of human voices and their AI clones. First, let’s see why we might recommend human voice talent.
Professional human voices
You can’t do better than a skilled human voice artist on a microphone. Professional human voice actors possess the skills necessary to deliver messages clearly and articulately, reducing the likelihood of misunderstandings. This clarity is crucial in an auto attendant setting, where callers rely on the information provided to navigate their options effectively. A well-spoken voice can guide callers through complex menus, ensuring they feel confident in making their selections.
A professional voice can convey clarity, confidence, and warmth, ensuring that your callers feel welcomed and understood. This is particularly important in customer service scenarios where callers may be frustrated or seeking urgent assistance. A soothing, articulate voice can help to calm tense situations, fostering a sense of trust and reliability.
How to choose a human voice talent
Think again about your brand identity, your company mission, and your target audience. Different voices evoke different emotions and perceptions; for instance, a friendly and cheerful tone may be perfect for a family-oriented business, while a more authoritative and serious voice may suit a financial institution better. Let’s list some examples of the kind of voice direction talented artists might use.
Voice Talent Options
Business | Voice Direction |
|---|---|
Garden Center | Friendly, fresh, upbeat |
Health Care | Authoritative, caring, informative |
Agricultural Equipment | Powerful, dependable, encouraging |
Legal | Steady, clear, strong, yet caring |
Hospitality | Friendly, warm, happy |
AI (Artificial Intelligence) text-to-speech voice service
AI voice generation, also known as text-to-speech (TTS), involves converting written text into spoken words using artificial intelligence. This technology is getting better and better. It has significantly impacted various industries, such as virtual assistants, accessibility, and entertainment, by providing more natural and relatable synthetic voices. One such application is the AI voice services provided by Easy On Hold as part of their overall communications platform services and expertise.
In 2023, Easy On Hold launched a natural-sounding AI voice prompt generator to help businesses immediately update phone prompts and greetings used for professional business voices for IVR and auto-attendant. When time is of the essence, or updates are frequently needed, the Easy On Hold AI voice solution answers the need for immediate voice recordings.
The game-changer: identical human and AI voices at your fingertips
Using the Easy On Hold staff voice talents (humans) for your basic IVR and auto-attendant voice prompts is a professional option. But sometimes, waiting for a voice talent recording isn’t an option. Log in to your Easy On Hold portal, choose your Easy On Hold voice talent, and simply type the text you want to hear. The IVR prompt recording will sound amazingly similar to your existing human prompts.
Professional voice business recordings for IVAR and auto-attendant in multiple languages
Auto Attendants and IVR voice telephone greetings are available in just about any language. Easy On Hold, for example, has provided Arabic, German, Farsi, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, and more commonly US neutral Spanish and Canadian French. Using the AI voice services from your Easy On Hold portal provides 150+ languages and dialects.
Telephone Greetings And Prompts: Best Tips
- Be Brief. Keep the length of your initial welcome greeting to less than 3 seconds. Be concise. No unnecessary words.
- Keep It Simple. The maximum number of options should be five, if possible. The overall menu length of an auto-attendant should be less than one minute.
- First Things First. The most desired option should not be the last; respect your callers’ time and help them get to where they need to go as quickly as possible.
- Stick With One Consistent Voice. Callers may think the prompts are out of date or inaccurate when they hear more than one voice in the IVR or auto-attendant.
- Match the voice of the auto-attendant greetings to that of your messages on hold. Callers are likely to go from the automated greeting directly to a hold queue while the call transfer is taking place. Using the same voice on hold will make this experience sound smoother and more professional.
Consider Spanish Telephone Greetings And Other Languages
Auto Attendants and IVR voice telephone greetings are available in just about any language. Easy On Hold, for example, has provided Arabic, German, Farsi, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, and more. Global businesses, so they request multiple languages and dialects for their telephone greetings around the world.
Enhance Your Business Image with Professional Business Voices for IVR
A professional voice can significantly enhance your customer’s experience and establish a strong connection between your brand and your target audience. By investing in Professional Business Voices for IVR and auto-attendant recordings, your company can build trust and confidence among your customers, patients, members, and all those V.I.P.s who contact you.
Try a demonstration of the IVR voice services from Easy On Hold to get a sense of what’s possible. Breathe life into your automated systems by using a professional service like Easy On Hold. It’s a small investment with a big impact.
