10. The signature GM Voices light-up pen. People go crazy for these things. Get yours for only a “hi” and a handshake.

9. Post-show golfing. Winter has been brutal, hasn’t it? Get a nice sock tan and shed the parka for a tasteful polo.

8. Post-show Harry Potter. But will it be opening in time for the show? Sure, VoiceCon itself will be magical, but you don’t put a limit on this stuff.

7. Breakout sessions that run the gamut. Seriously, if you want to “Unify Your Enterprise Communcations,” just bring a notepad, some biz cards and some granola bars and sponge up the knowledge.

6. The best in “green” fashion. There’s a reason why most people don’t wear green dress shirts: They can’t rock them like the GM Voices team. You can’t miss us in these things. Ask us for a personalized strut down the catwalk.

5. Keynote speakers! The real “Clash of the Titans” takes place a week and a half before the movie opens. Look of those telecom heavyweights. Inspiration to ensue.

4. GM Voices PersonaPod. Stop by our touchscreen and sample over 90 languages and dialects. We can localize your speech application for any market.

3. Visit us and be entered to win an HD Flip video camera. These things are great. After you win it, bring it to VoiceCon 2011 and go YouTube crazy.

2. Also, “Unify Your Brand.” Does the voice on your automated apps match your image in the marketplace (check out your advertising at every other touchpoint)? GM Voices can rehab your Voice Brand to bring it in line with your overall image.

1. NO MORE ROBOT VOICES. Can’t reveal much about this just yet, but stay tuned to our YouTube channel for details. The war goes on…

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The real magic is how this man can edit your voice prompts.

More Awesome Songs and Videos in the Pipeline. Stay Tuned.

What a cool bunch of people we have at GM Voices.  We have musicians. We have stand-up comedians. We have semi-professional traveling Harry Potter cosplayers. Acting enthusiasts. Artists. Photographers. Videographers. You couldn’t find a more varied set of personalities if you visited Mos Eisley Cantina on planet Tatooine.

With such crazy cats and talents sets, we can do things most businesses can’t. We can write songs and make music videos. We can survive a tumble off a cliff face. Bottom line: We can make voice recording exciting, whether used in our marketing materials or your own interactive projects.

But what we’ve done in the past few months is nothing compared to what we’ve got simmering in the crock pot. More songs and music videos–rap, blues, remixes. More live-action infotainment. Strategic sales tools for our partners. The best Voice Brand Audits we’ve ever done.

It’s an exciting time to be at GM Voices. We’re more than just a recording studio for voice prompts, you know. We’re an imaginarium wonder emporium lately, and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve got.

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This is a good book.

Defending the process, recognizing the fine line between extraneous pretension and essential brand ascription.

Two weeks before I started working at GM Voices, I was loaded with a hernia-inducing pile of books. They ranged from generalized marketing and public relations to very specific tomes on IVR, ASR, Voice Branding and speech technologies. I read most of these books, all or in part. Perhaps the best of the industry-specific reads was Bruce Balentine’s It’s Better to Be a Good Machine Than a Bad Person. It’s lighthearted, conversational and written in way that’s easily understood by non-technophiles (me). It provided a solid foundation of the stuff we try to humanize; the essential automation that many people hate, and our mission to make it so they don’t hate it as much.

One issue I had with Balentine’s book, however, was his critique of the persona development process. It’s baloney, he says. Irrelevant. Even the word “persona” is pretentious to Balentine. People just want to enter their account number. Personality (voice) traits and biographical informers are unnecessary.

I disagree with most of his assessment. GM Voices recognizes that we’re not making movies here. This process can proceed with comical over-analysis. So with respect to the company’s brand and its customers, we therefore proceed with just the right amount of analysis and development. Indeed, it’s a fine line between thorough and extraneous. But we’ve found this balance.

But so is this.

Voice represents companies on some of their most crucial customer touchpoints: Television and radio advertising, direct and event marketing, trade show presence, even on the very products they sell. It’s understood that the voice will carry the hallmarks of the brand to affirm the identity of the company in the customer’s mind. Do businesses and consumers find this frivolous? No. And it’s no different over the phone, where depending on the company, hundreds or thousands of customer contacts are handled each day. Does it matter where the voice of the IVR went to college? Maybe not, but a brand-consistent sound is paramount to us. And these details help our very talented voice actors achieve this sound.

And it’s not just us: Our client’s marketing directors are usually on the same page. It doesn’t take much convincing that the voice of the IVR should resonate with buyer demographics and unify the essence the brand from other contact channels. I may be more jaded than most, but I know when the hip technology company makes an effort to present the same image on their automation. I also know when the luxury lifestyle retailer drops the ball by having what seems to be my grandmother on the IVR. Of course, everything fails if the VUI is poor or if the scripting is a failure. What I’m saying is that voice complements design. Branding is not a hindrance to containing calls or getting things done. These are not mutually exclusive goals. Persona development is an important part of the overall customer experience.

And if improving the customer experience and optimizing the Voice Brand is prententious, well, pass the stinky cheese and come over to my house to watch Inside the Actor’s Studio, because it’s about to get crazy up in here.

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The Angst of IVR

GetHuman Provides Compendium of IVR Avoidance

I was listening to Pink Floyd’s The Wall the other day. A funny thing happened. Instead of experiencing “Comfortably Numb” as a lamentation on drug use and alienation, I heard the hallucinatory exchange between customer and automated system. Well, at least in part.

Caller: Hello, is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at home?

IVR: Relax. I’ll need some information first. Just the basic facts. Can you show where it hurts?

It’s even more trippy when you listen like this!

Lately, I’ve been attuned to the consumer advocacy movement that has become prominent on websites and social media channels.

One of particular interest is gethuman.com, a website that provides customer service shortcuts; how to bypass automation and reach a live agent as quickly as possible.

As of this writing, there are 1,578 companies documented. Now, I’m sure these companies run the gamut in terms of customer experience quality. Just from a quick glance, I see many GM Voices customers (at the very least, they have great Voice Brands).

But it speaks to a greater dissatisfaction within the call center realm. The people who reference this site are jaded, burned too many times, and they wield increasingly growing influence.

Can companies reverse this trend and turn the unbelievers into advocates? No. Well, not entirely. It’s a bigger project than is necessary. Companies need to take care of their own customer experience and not worry about paradigm shifts. After all, great journeys begin with single steps.

“Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.”

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