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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GM Voices Makes the Open Road Sound Better than Ever

As we blog, GM Voices is en route to the Telematics 2011 Conference to show developers how to enhance the in-car experience with voice prompts and commands that sound great on GPS, telematics and remote diagnostic applications. GM Voices provides the high-quality recordings for many of the top in-car applications. Not the portable devices, mind you, but the integrated luxury technologies that are made to sound great in top-of-the-line vehicles.

Recording for telematics is different than recording for telephony, but the goal is basically the same—to provide users with a natural-sounding, brand-consistent experience. Check out our GPS/telematics webpage and watch Marcus Graham talk about our road-tested GPS experience.

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The ‘Why’ and ‘Who’ that Defines Your Company Should Shape Your Voice Brand, Not the ‘What.’

The ultimate goal of any brand is to transcend the base functional benefits of its products and establish an emotional resonance that brings customers back time and time again. Any company that has established this connection—and let’s be honest, it’s kind of rare—has an ingrained swagger. You can immediately throw out details of its identity; its target audience, its reason for existing. These companies market with a mission. If you’ve ever heard of the “golden circle”—you understand the principle. By clearly defining why your company exists, everything else seems to come naturally—a look, a feel, a loyal buying tribe, and an internal brand compass that maintains a sense of purpose and relevance.

Let’s get horticultural. If your overall brand is a tree, the brand essence would be the roots or the trunk. The Voice Brand, the image you project to customers through your phone automation, would at least be a prominent branch. And if those roots go deep, if your brand is strong and well formed, Voice Branding—selecting a voice your speech applications—should be a fun exercise. Likely, you have an idea of what your voice would sound like. Your other customer touchpoints—advertising, an in-store experience, anything—paints an audio picture, so to speak. GM Voices can help you hone in on the sound to perfectly align with these touchpoints, a sound that immediately reaffirms your identity in the caller’s mind (and ear). If your brand occupies this rarefied territory of actualization, there are no excuses for a Voice Branding disconnect.

And then the other side of the coin. If your brand is too focused on outside-in marketing—a heavily commoditized, product-centric, unemotional image—choosing a voice may be difficult. Likely, anything branding related will be difficult, because it hasn’t been defined. Talk to GM Voices about a persona development project. In defining the attributes that will shape your voice to the marketplace, it may uncover some guidelines that will help you target buyers with a more clearly-established identity and purpose. We enjoy these creative consulting engagements, and would be happy to speak to you about your brand.

Check out this short video about the persona design process:

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Consumer Brands Allow Creative Voice Opportunities for Automation

Selecting a voice for an automated phone application is often a subjective process. In many cases, several decision makers review sound files—independently or with the GM Voices team—and choose the voice that sounds best to them (and hopefully their calling audience as well).

Other times, clients will defer to us to craft a sound that is uniquely suited for their brand. This is when we get to have fun and be creative. Because no two brands are exactly the same, it only stands to reason that no two Voice Brands should be the same either. A voice persona development project at GM Voices involves an analysis of current brand positioning, through our own research and observations, and in consultation with a company’s brand/marketing teams, to find a sound that matches the company image at all its other customer touchpoints.

It must be said: some brands are just better defined than others. This can be a company weakness that can be attributed to not focusing on projecting a compelling and clearly-defined story, sure… and then some companies occupy a space or industry that just doesn’t allow for us much creativity. For many such companies, “friendly and professional” seems to dominate the direction of the voice.

When companies have a very clear brand image, it’s enjoyable to find a sound that encapsulates that identity to resonate with customers. The more distinct the brand direction, the “bolder” the voice tends to be. Often, a consumer brand—defined by far more advertising and insight into the preferences of the buying audiences—affords greater flexibility for customization than a business-to-business brand. Many sounds that wouldn’t be appropriate for a generalized business crowd succeed on consumer-brand applications because they target a specific, niche audience.

Here are some examples:

Beauty, cosmetics, luxury – These companies provide a great opportunity to utilize a more sultry and aggressive female sound. If the brand is passively (or overtly) defined by an air of exclusivity or sophistication, a very confident and assertive sound can be desirable. This would not translate to a healthcare application, for example.

Blue collar, machinery, auto repair, production – On most applications, a neutral, unaccented voice is preferred to connect with the greatest number of callers. If your brand targets a “dude” audience, a folksier sound, maybe with a twang, can be used where it normally would never be considered.

Retail, electronics, mobile, consumer goods – If your company attracts a younger crowd, use a younger sound. Don’t give customers a branding disconnect (overly mature) if that’s not how you’re positioned at other contact points. If your company attracts a more generalized audience, use a good “middle” sound. If you cater to teens and young adults, use a youthful and vibrant sound to affirm your identity.

Check out this video of CEO Marcus Graham discussing our persona development process:

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Voice Branding 101 Starts Here

Head over to GM Voices proper and check out our new white papers page. You’ll find CEO Marcus Graham’s “Speech Recognition, the Brand and the Voice,” which also appeared in William Meisel’s “Speech in the User Interface” collection. (See a short video on that book here.) This entry outlines how to choose a voice for your speech application.

Also included is “Building a Better (Voice) Brand,” tips and tricks for improving your automated voice and customer experience.

We’ll keep you faithful blog readers apprised of our latest epic screeds as we produce ‘em.

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Best for International Applications, Sometimes Neutral “American” English isn’t the Way to Go

English is the generally accepted international language of commerce. Outside of a country’s native language, English is almost always the top alternative for IVR voice prompts and marketing/business narration. But the approach should be considered carefully. GM Voices’ English deployment recommendation varies depending on the calling audience of the application.

For North American apps, we almost universally recommend a neutral, unaccented “Midwestern American” English voice. If you browse our Weekly Session voice actors on our voice library, you’ll notice that most everyone conforms to this standard. It’s the style least likely to offend someone’s sensibilities anywhere in the country.

But the American English style doesn’t work for non-U.S. applications, even with many English-language callers. To this end, GM Voices offers a great variety of international accented English dialects; some predictable, some surprising. Certainly, UK English is an important dialect in Europe, and GM Voices offers other accented English voices to best connect to English-as-a-first-language callers: Australian, Irish, even Canadian. Some others wouldn’t immediately come to mind, but do make sense; English in Indian, Singapore and Swiss accents. These countries have enough English-language callers to use that language on automation, but require a localized variation to better connect with callers.

It should be noted that GM Voices uses locally-authentic voice actors for every language and dialect, the exact opposite of what this young lady accomplishes all herself. Give this video a watch and note how different dialects would be essential for local caller acceptance.

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Like English-Speaking Americans, Spanish-Language Consumers Prefer an Increasingly Prominent Voice Standard

For centuries, Americans of European origin have slowly melded into what’s generally perceived to be a standard “American” cultural identity. And while regional dialects and accents persist to some degree, the US English language has accordingly transitioned into a standardized neutral voice. You know the sound, of course. It’s the style of our news anchors, our TV spokespeople, and for GM Voices’ sake, our automated phone systems.

Well, the same thing is happening to Spanish-speaking Americans. GM Voices has long advocated its Neutral Spanish style. This is a generalized standard that works best for disparate groups of Spanish-language callers. It’s really the most effective way to optimize your caller contacts; a catch-all for customers who may be of Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican or Continental Spanish origins.

And now it doesn’t seem limited to corporate branding and customer service. Just like English-language entertainment figures, Spanish-speaking actors and personalities are now being instructed to conform to the neutral standard to best connect with an increasingly consolidated cultural cross section. Miami-based Telemundo is just one example of this shifting strategy, a migration that will only be more pronounced as the US’ Spanish-speaking population grows and different cultures blend just like their Euro-based predecessors.

Of course, it should be noted that GM Voices has helped companies understand this cultural shift and enhance its automated contacts for many years.

Check out this video of a GM Voices neutral Spanish voice talent reading a script about our value proposition.

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Our Mission, Our Theme and a Little Taste of What to Expect

February 28th marks the inaugural edition of Enterprise Connect, formerly VoiceCon, at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando. As a faithful reader of this blog, you know that we’ve created a music video (two versions) to commemorate last year’s event, which can be found here (original) and here (outtakes).

GM Voices often themes its booth displays for a bit of fun and pun. This year, partially to coincide with the new park at Universal, we will be exhibiting with a Harry Potter theme. As in, “with GM Voices’ natural-sounding voice prompts in over 100 languages and dialects, we help your company deliver a magical customer experience.”

If you’d like complimentary floor passes, please get in touch with Karen Smith (ksmith at gmvoices dot com).

We’ll be bringing audio engineer and HP enthusiast Andrew Bates, who in turn will be bringing several HP-costumed friends. To give you a taste of the style and commitment of these dedicated cosplayers, check out this mini-documentary of Andrew and gang at Infinitus, an HP extravaganza that took place this past summer. That’s dedication, holmes.

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The Outtake Version We’re Not Sure We Even Want to Show You, but Are Anyway.

A few months ago, GM Voices premiered a music video called “Everyone Connects (Enterprise Connect, GM Voices, Avaya).” You can read that original post and watch the video here. That video, while seemingly chaotic and full of shenanigans, was actually very carefully considered, storyboarded and edited. From inception to release, it took us about nine months.

Well, we’ve created an alternate version. This one was assembled from all our outtakes, as well as a “live” performance by the GM Voices Nerd Boys Band in the call center next door to our production facility. This video is chaotic, full of shenanigans… and basically just thrown together. And that’s why it’s so much fun!

If you’ve never seen our original—please, watch it first. You need some context. But then, watch this video and celebrate the never-ending zaniness that is “Everyone Connects (Enterprise Connect, GM Voices, Avaya) Live Outtake Version.”

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Video Best Practice Series from Marcus Graham

GM Voices recently completed a series of informational video interviews on Voice Branding topics such as auto attendant, IVR, and of course, professional voice actors for telephony. Each topic is collected on our main website. These are easy to understand, high-level overviews of the fundamental tenets of creating a great caller experience for your customers. Check them out over your morning cup o’ joe.

Here’s a sample:

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