With all of the technology that exists at our fingertips in this day and age, it is understandable why many a company has considered recording their own messages with in-house employees in lieu of professional voice talents, either for on-hold systems or for IVR and Auto Attendant recordings.
But no matter how impressive you believe your free voice recording software or app to be, there is no substitute for a professional, experienced voice actor. A professional voice actor is trained to maintain a consistent style, pace, energy, and pronunciation throughout a recording, something that is especially vital in the case of an IVR system in which the final deployment will be knitted together from multiple audio fragments.
A professional voice talent can also vary their tone and emotional pitch to match the energy you wish to present to your customer. Whether you are looking for a steady and stoic read, or want your listeners to call in and get a sense of exuberance and excitement, a trained voice artist will be much more successful than scrounging around the office and hoping to find someone.
Utilizing professional voice artists is especially important when you are contemplating an IVR project with global applications. If you are looking at a project that will require anywhere from a couple to a dozen different languages, unless you have access to a native speaker who can validate the work of each and every individual voice talent, then your safest and smartest bet will be to utilize professional voice performers with established reputations and a proven track record. Otherwise, you will be running the risk of mispronunciations, bad recording levels and quality, and an inability to inflect correctly. With projects of this size, it is always best to be careful.
It also pays to be careful with so-called ‘professionals’ who have access to the same free or cheap gear that anyone with a SmartPhone might, and who hurriedly cranked out a few demos and is now positing themselves as a pro. Always make sure that whatever professional voice talents you are employing have been vetted by a credible voice recordings firm.
Once you have made the decision to use a professional voice artist for your IVR recordings, your Auto Attendant prompts project, or your on hold messages script, the next step will be to make sure that you have chosen the right voice for your brand. Be sure to listen to multiple demos before you choose and really think about the energy you want to convey to your customers. Do you want your company associated with a high-energy hype-man, or with a vibe that is soothing, stately? The more demos you sample, and the closer you listen, the better sense you will have of how your script will sound, and the effect it will have on your customers.
Go ahead and visit our library of available voices and spend a little time listening to the different voice samples. . Male, female, younger, older, get a sense of all the different sounds that are out there, and then decide which one speaks best to you.