Archive for December, 2009

Rocking Out with GM Voices

Posted by Matt on Tuesday, 29 December, 2009

GM Voices is known for several things. Chief among them are an expansive roster of voice actors, a top-notch process for delivering high-quality voice prompts and our green shirts (and occasionally, absurd costumes) we trot out for trade shows. Never have we been known for original music compositions or rocking your face off. But that’s about to change.

GM Voices can also rock.

Yeah, this plus a 30 foot wall of amps.

A combination of good vibrations from our first AstriCon and the holidays has recently inspired us to wade out into uncharted waters. We wrote some lyrics, busted out the six-strings, brought in some backup singers and started jamming. The result is the best song and music video ever on the subjects of VoIP and open source telephony. (One of rock ‘n’ roll’s all-time favorite themes, I may add.)

There are certain moments in music history when you can feel the planet shift its alignment: Elvis on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” Sgt. Pepper’s, Live Aid. This certainly feels like one of those moments.

It’s coming soon. Check this space (or the homepage) for updates. Also keep your set tuned to MTV. Wait. What? MTV doesn’t play music videos anymore? Never mind.

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Self Service for a Fast-paced World: Do It Right or Pay the Price

Posted by Matt on Monday, 21 December, 2009

People are busy. Every day is an overload of information, marketing, work, traffic and fast food. Whatever scraps left over from the day are called “me time” or “family time.” This is one reason why kids are insufferable these days. When neglected and left to their own (electronic, social networking) devices, they turn into monsters.

The time crunch of 21st century living has mostly killed the necessity (or even the option) of face-to-face contact. It makes me sad. But just a little. I have a report to finish. A blog entry to write. There’s no time to finish today’s to-do list, let alone mourn the death of chit chat with my grocer or a conversation with a live customer service agent.

Self service is great, if you can shave off the seconds.

Self service is great, if you can shave off the seconds.

I’m all about efficiency these days. If I can shave 30 seconds off my trip to Kroger by ringing up my own razor blades, I shave them so I can shave sooner. If I can access my account through IVR and bypass my goofy bank teller, I listen to the voice prompts and get on with my day, even though he is a hoot.

And you’re probably the same way. You’re busy. Self-service sounds like a great idea if you can keep it moving. But here’s the problem: To keep it moving, the application needs to work. The kiosk at Kroger works, the ATM works; people are comfortable helping themselves, buying, when it’s easy. Over the phone, it’s not easy. This is why people are angry, and this is why companies are paying the price.

Emily Yellin’s book Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us is an epic screed of customer disillusionment, chock full of businesses dropping the ball as if coated in Crisco. At GM Voices, we’re constantly pounding the point of an improved customer experience. What we do here, giving automated applications a clear, natural, brand-consistent sound, is a small but essential part of avoiding that fumble. You need a good call flow, a good script; you need to pick your battles. Which tasks are appropriate for automation? Which require Carl from the call center?

Lots of companies haven’t figured this out. They can’t discern. It’s why they’re getting lit up for $7.50 per phone call (the cost of a customer opting out of a self-service application for a live agent). People want to help themselves. It’s fast! Companies want people to help themselves. It’s cheap! As in a few cents. This should be something everyone can agree on: Fix the phone, watch the savings.

People are busy. Give ‘em what they want. Just do it right.

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Building a Better (Voice) Brand

Posted by Matt on Tuesday, 8 December, 2009
Simple Voice Branding guidelines to help you improve your telephone customer experience and overall brand.

If your company uses prerecorded greetings or messages, it has a Voice Brand, whether it was crafted with care or with indifference. Unfortunately, the people who need to be most keyed into Voice Branding, C-level execs and marketing managers, are often too high in the clouds to evaluate or even recognize the very public front a telephone presents to customers. After all, Voice Branding is the ground floor; for many customers, especially in a global economy, it’s the front door of your enterprise. So who’s answering your front door? Put yourself in a customer’s shoes: Would you be excited to give yourself business?

Go ahead. Call yourself. We dare you.
Go ahead. Call yourself. We dare you.

If these questions give you pause, it may be time for an intervention. But just to make sure, check out this short list. These are the hallmarks of great Voice Branding, the factors that are shaping your customers’ perceptions RIGHT NOW. Do you meet these criteria? If not, let’s talk.

1. A single-voice user experience:

Any company worth its salt knows an advertising or marketing campaign needs to be consistent with its identity. Brand continuity is key; different variations of a unified theme. It’s the same idea with your prerecorded phone messages. The voice that greets a customer should be the same voice that guides them through all the menus of your IVR system. Multiple voices are jarring in a customer experience; inconsistency is brand discontinuity. Select a single voice persona for your company—one that fits your image. See our Weekly Sessions overview to see how GM Voices makes this easy and affordable to implement and maintain.

2. Spanish voice prompts that sound as good as English:

So maybe your English-language application sounds great. You’re not off the hook yet. Are your Spanish-speaking customers getting the same service? The US Hispanic market will triple over the next 40 years, and its spending influence is disproportionately skyrocketing. A Voice Branding expert takes great care to select a professional voice actor who can connect with everyone. This usually means choosing a Neutral Spanish talent, someone who can speak without a regional accent. A Voice Brander always ensures that menu scripts are properly translated, grammatically correct and appropriate to the target audience. GM Voices has been developing Neutral Spanish voice personas for Fortune 1000 companies for years. No problemo.

3. Uniform, high-quality production:

Why is it that (often in the same system) some voice prompts sound crystal clear while others sound like they were recorded on your grandma’s old Dictaphone? Some recordings pierce your eardrums; others are practically inaudible. When it’s expensive or impractical to update your recordings, a piecemeal and bizarre customer experience is sure to follow. Getting serious about Voice Branding requires using the same recording equipment, the same mixing and editing process and the same volume levels (Holy tinnitus, Batman!). Our experienced audio engineers keep your sound consistent using state-of-the-art recording gear.

4. Scripting for success:

The objectives of any IVR system are to reflect positively on the brand and automate routine caller requests. The only way you meet either is through an effective script and menu tree. Admittedly, it’s a fine line between concise and cold, pleasant and superfluous. It’s important to troubleshoot any scripting scenario. Is it respectful of your customers’ time? Is there a logical flow? Break out a stopwatch. Get someone to role play with you. It’s the difference between about seven cents (when a customer is contained within your IVR) and $7.50 (when a customer opts for a live agent).

Your phone is ringing. Good or bad, it’s your brand that’s answering the call. Give your biz a jingle. Now you know what to listen for.

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Get the Balance Right: Live Agent vs. Automation

Posted by Matt on Wednesday, 2 December, 2009

It seems like whenever I tell someone that my company produces the prerecorded voice prompts and messages heard on automated phone systems, I get a response like this…  

Is this your customer?

Is this your customer?

“I hate those things” or “I usually just start pressing 0.”

I guess it does hurt my feelings a bit.   You know, I am a sensitive sort of guy.  I usually just respond with…

“Oh, you must have called a company that hasn’t hired GM Voices for our user design enhancement services!”

Don’t get me wrong, we love what we do here at GM Voices where we create the best voice brands in the country. Our natural-sounding voice actors create virtual personas that help our customers speak with brand-consistent voices every time a customer calls.

Unfortunately, for every well designed IVR or speech recognition system in the marketplace, there are a dozen poor implementations that are irritating millions of callers day in and day out.

The voice self-service industry has got to do a better job identifying what issues lend themselves to automation and which ones can be better addressed with a live, thinking customer service rep.  And for goodness sakes, we’ve got to stop making it so difficult to get to a live agent on the phone.

It’s really all about taking care of customers. When voice automation works effectively, the customer is happy and keeps buying. At some point, companies that use it poorly will lose customers to the companies that see the real value in the customer experience.

Read this article (now blogged) that appeared in Newsday in New York.  It’s just the tip of the iceberg. After you read it, click on these comments to see what the average person on the street thinks of voice automation and the conspiracy to keep calls from talking to real, live, human agents.

Marcus Graham

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