The Founding of GM Voices Highlights a Year of Important Moments

President Reagan is sworn in for his second term. Hulk Hogan and Mr. T team up at the very first Wrestlemania. New Coke debuts and fails. Live Aid brings our most talented (and mulleted) musical personalities together to raise money for Ethiopian famine relief. Everyone agrees that Back to the Future is awesome. It is 1985, a year of many cultural landmarks.

Perhaps less celebrated, but nearly as important, is the founding of GM Voices. It’s 1985, and voice automation is still in its infancy—no IVR, TTS, GPS. Actually, acronyms had not even been invented yet. But what did exist was after-hours messaging—“our business is closed.” And it all sounded bad. Enter one man. Like Marty McFly, Marcus Graham came with a vision of the future; a day when branded caller experiences would be omnipresent, a day when companies would have no choice but turn their customer relationships over to automation.

Enter one business—a Rich’s department store in Atlanta. Marcus, a former DJ at Georgia State University and as aspiring voice talent, calls Rich’s after hours and is shocked by what he hears. “This recording is not fitting of the Rich’s brand,” he thinks. Then, a commercial breakthrough: “I can record their messaging in my buddy’s studio, make it sound professional, and I can probably make some money.” And so it was, and so it shall ever be.

Since 1985, GM Voices has exploded as voice automation proliferated across customer-facing technologies—telephony, telematics, business narration and multimedia. The Back to the Future series, while entertaining, was not a predictive force—why did it feature hovering skateboards and not IVRs fronted by natural-sounding, brand-consistent voice prompts from GM Voices? It is a slight we often think about.

Watch this video rumination on 1985, the year it all got started.

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An open letter to every company with automated customer contacts. This is who we are. This is what we do better than any company in the world.

Hello,

You have happened upon the official blog of GM Voices. We are the global leader in professionally-recorded voice prompts for IVR, auto attendant, speech recognition and other automated voice systems. We have provided natural-sounding recorded voice for phone greetings and voice messaging for over 25 years. Other businesses may specialize in voice recording, but none are so uniquely positioned to improve your automated customer experience. We do what what we do specially for customer contacts and marketing voice messaging.

Our business is one of process perfection. IVR phone systems require frequent updates. That’s why we offer next-day turnarounds of ready-to-load audio files in any format. We work in a global economy, where customers shop for quality of product and experience, disregarding borders and the past. That’s why we record in 100 languages and dialects, all in-country and in-context. We’re attuned to the fact that your corporate image is wholly unique. We’re attuned to the fact that your customers are wholly unique. That’s why our roster of professional voice actors are trained, certified and available by the hundreds.

Our QA process and audio expertise is thorough and incomparable. Our audio engineers were educated specifically for our business. Voice files are edited to sound crisp, clear and professional, every time. Our archiving ensures that any audio update sounds seamless compared to previous orders.

We help companies communicate with world-class Voice Brands. We affirm your customers’ decisions to do business with you in the f irst place. We help your application achieve a higher rate of caller containment, lowering your expenses. We record for expansive and deep call menus, and quick-and-easy auto attendants and on-hold messaging.

We’re available right now to take your call (770.752.4500). We’re available to elevate your customer communications.

Any language, any media, any market, any application, any platform provider. We’re GM Voices. We’re your voice to the world.

Listen to Our Voices (Full Media Player)

Listen to Quick Samples

Listen to Voice Persona Styles

Listen to Business Narration Samples

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It’s a captive audience. Don’t stop selling them.

I enjoy lite jazz as much as the next person. Maybe more. Getting my local forecast on the Weather Channel with a side of tasteful sax is one of life’s underrated pleasures.

If you’re using this kind of music (or any other) for your call queue, that’s fine. But use it in moderation. When you have a customer on hold, whether for sales, service or miscellaneous, you have a captive audience. It’s the perfect time to hit them for the up sell or to reinforce your branding.

GM Voices specializes in on-hold messaging that keeps your customers’ attention. One phone call doesn’t assure a second buy or continued service. Make the most of your time. Go for the conversion.

From short marketing messages to entertaining, interactive commercials, GM Voices’ on-hold programs can help your company engage your audience. On-hold recordings are a vital part of a unified Voice Brand; combine them with a professional, natural-sounding auto attendant or IVR and voicemail messages for a world-class customer experience.

Too much lite jazz evokes a call to action, sure. Right to the coffee shop to pick up the CD. Make sure your on-hold messaging inspires the right kind of purchase—from you, again and again.

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