Go with the Flow (Call Flow)
It’s What You Say (Script Writing)
Elementary, My Dear (Keep It Simple)
So Tired. Tired of Waiting (On Hold Messages)
After Hours Club (Sorry, Nobody’s Home)
Parlez Vous French? (Language And Translation Issues)
It’s Also How You Say It (Choosing A Voice)
Keep it Consistent (Voice, Volume & Content)
Does Sex Matter? (We Mean Gender)
Dialect (Not Sounding Regional)
We’re Canadian, Eh (Appealing To Americans)
Speed and Pacing (Reading Style)
Music to My Ears (Music & Messages)
You Say Goodbye, But I Say (It’s All Over Now)

Go with the Flow
For many consumers, automated telephone systems can be annoying at the best of times. The goal is to make the experience as pleasant and efficient as possible. Efficiency starts with call flow. Can the caller find what he or she wants quickly without getting trapped in “voice mail hell”? It all starts with knowing as much as you can about who’s calling and why. Give them the best and fastest way of getting where they want to go… whether you’re offering a recorded information service or simply allowing callers to choose the department they wish to contact.

Informational menus are a great way of saving your employees’ time if you can anticipate the most frequently asked questions or problems that new or existing customers may experience. But it must be easy to get the right information or the caller will hang up, or worse, call a competitor. Above all, don’t make the message too long. You’ll have trouble holding people’s attention for more than a minute per message, so get to the point quickly and keep it simple.

It's What You Say
Writing the messages for your telephone system may seem simple. Communicating effectively, however, is an art in itself. It’s much the same as writing scripts for radio or television. You have to communicate in a way that’s easy to understand and flows naturally. You are writing for the ear, and you have one chance to be understood. So don’t use long, convoluted sentences that you might see in a textbook. Again, keep it simple. Don’t forget your callers’ comprehension levels can vary dramatically. Many may speak English as a second language. So the writing has to be natural and flow logically - in a way that everyone can understand without insulting anyone’s intelligence.
By the way, you may notice a lot of contractions on this page. It’s the way people speak. It’s natural. And you shouldn’t be afraid to use them in your phone system.

Elementary, My Dear
Avoid big words and technical jargon if you can help it. Before you start writing a phone message, imagine that you are explaining something to a family member or friend. How would you say it? For example, we often hear this: “To better service your call, this call may be recorded or monitored for quality assurance purposes.” Can you imagine saying that to a friend? Why not this: “In order to give you the best service possible, this call may be monitored or recorded.” Don’t be afraid to talk directly to the caller. Even though it’s a recording, treat the writing as if you’re having a phone conversation – a one-sided conversation, that is.

When presenting options, do it logically. For example, avoid this: “Press one to reach our accounting department. Press two to reach our technical service department…” Present the information first – as simply as possible - then the dialing option. “To reach our accounting office, press one.” For technical support, press two…” This way, the caller doesn’t have to work to remember which key to press.

It’s always nice to be polite. But it can also be too much of a good thing. For example, “For billing inquiries, please press one. For technical support, please press two. For sales, please press three.” Do you really need to say “please” every time? Saying it the first time is a nice touch. Saying it every time can be annoying and in the end, meaningless.

Repetition isn’t always a bad thing, though. If you are suggesting the caller dial another phone number, for example, it’s a good idea to repeat it, because most people won’t be able to remember it the first time around. The same goes for URL addresses unless they are very easy to remember. Also, it’s now common to drop the “www” from the URL, making the address less cumbersome and easier to remember.

So Tired. Tired of Waiting...
If the caller is waiting in queue to speak to a company representative, be sure to keep them engaged. Hearing “dead air” can be painful. Hearing the same message over and over – “Your call will be handled by the next available associate” - can be torturous. If your automated system can handle it, inform callers about the estimated wait time. Let them decide if they want to hold or call back later. This is a great opportunity to tell them the least busy times to call.

The After Hours Club
Not everyone knows your company’s business hours. If they’re calling after-hours, let them know as quickly as possible that your offices are now closed and be sure to include your business hours. Also, avoid giving your hours in “Eastern Standard Time…” or “Pacific Standard Time”. Standard time is the opposite of Daylight Savings Time. It should just be “Eastern Time” or Pacific Time”. Also, be sure to have recordings prepared in advance for Holidays or emergencies that may force your offices to close during regular hours.

Parlez Vous French?
If your company offers service in more than one language, don’t take translations lightly. All of the principles we’re talking about here apply in any language. Make sure the translator understands this and is able to write in a way that is conversational and grammatically correct. Corporate systems that sound great in English can be insulting to French-Canadian or Spanish-speaking callers, for example, if the translation is too flowery, pedantic, grammatically incorrect, or presents improper telephone syntax. Just because one of your employees speaks the language, it doesn’t make him or her an effective communicator or translator. Try to use a translation service that specializes in writing for the ear and make sure they understand the nuances of telephone syntax. Above all, never use a computerized or web-based translator. These translations will rarely, if ever, make sense and will make your company look and sound foolish.

It's Also How You Say It
The voice in your telephone system is critically important. All the money and hard work that goes into your IVR system can be wasted if the presentation isn’t professional. Recording announcements for telephone systems is an art in itself, yet countless companies choose to let their own employees record messages. This makes as much sense as having someone in Accounting read your radio or television commercials. The voice must be smooth and friendly without being smarmy or over-the-top friendly, which can turn people off. And just because someone is a “professional” announcer, it doesn’t mean they are good at telephone recordings. Look for someone that has a lot of experience in telephone messaging and try to listen to them in an existing telephone system. Is he or she easy to understand? Friendly? Can you listen for an extended time without getting antsy? Does it sound like the announcer knows what he/she’s talking about or are they just reading a script?

Keep It Consistent
Once you have a professional voice in your system, it’s important to have the same voice throughout. Keep in mind that this is the voice of your company, and if the listener is confronted with different voices during one or more calls, it sends a confusing message and the corporate image is blurred. Consistency in the phone system is just as important as consistency in the use of your logo in advertising, promotion, or on your web site.

It’s also important to make sure volume levels are consistent throughout your phone system. It’s jarring for listeners when the volume suddenly jumps up or down during a call, and once again, the corporate image gets a black eye.

Something else that should be consistent is writing and syntax style. The way products or services are described, for instance, should be the same each time or the caller can become confused. Or, if the # key is an option, for example, decide how you want to describe it … (Number Key? Number Sign? Pound? The Pound Key? The X’s-and-O’s thingy to the right of Zero? — kidding) … and stick with it throughout.

Does Sex Matter?
We’re talking about gender.

The first thing you must decide is whether to use a male or female voice. We’re not entirely sure why, but 95% of the companies we deal with prefer a female voice. Perhaps it goes back to the days when the “secretary” answered the phone. Some say a male voice can sound somewhat threatening over the phone. Others prefer the depth and perceived authority of a man’s voice. There’s no right or wrong. The same goes for the age of the announcer. Just be sure the voice – whether mature-sounding or younger - suits your corporate image. For example, Dynamix Productions records messages for a large power company. Its corporate calls and accounting inquiries are handled by a female voice. Power blackout information is delivered by a male voice. Once again, it’s all about the image you want to convey.

Dialect
Recordings that will be heard outside of a particular region should be as dialect-neutral as possible. If your callers are spread throughout the country or across the continent, it’s important that the announcer doesn’t sound as if he or she is appealing to a particular region, such as the Deep South, Mid West, New York Bronx, Northern Ontario, Southern Alberta etc. The same is true of other languages. There are as many dialects in Spanish and French-Canadian as there are regions. For example, someone from northwestern Quebec has a far different intonation than someone from Montreal, Quebec City, New Brunswick or Manitoba. Someone from France would sound very foreign anywhere in Canada. Spanish spoken in Mexico is far different than in various South American countries or in many parts of the United States.


We're Canadian, Eh?
Dozens of television journalists from Canada are employed by American TV networks. The late Peter Jennings and CNN’s John Roberts are both Canadian. They are excellent journalists, of course. But they have something else in common. They have a dialect-neutral way of speaking (to North American ears). This is true of many good Canadian announcers, as long as you avoid phrases like, “Thank you for calling, eh?” (kidding of course!). Canadian professionals tend to have a presentation that is not too region-specific, and they sound natural anywhere in North America.

Speed and Pacing
The announcer’s pacing is very important, although it always depends on the content and on the type of caller. You don’t want it to be too slow. For an international courier company, for instance, you know the caller has probably called before, and wants to either schedule a pickup, track or trace a package or talk to the billing department. The pacing should be rather quick. Everyone’s in a hurry and they want to get where they’re going as quickly and painlessly as possible.

If, on the other hand, the information is technical in nature, the pacing should be slower. Critical information should even be repeated. If your message informs people that for certain services they should call a different number, deliver the number slowly so they can write it down. And consider repeating it, in case they didn’t catch it the first time.

Dynamix Productions, for instance, records messages for the Canada Pension Plan. The callers are usually elderly. So, the pace is slower than other systems. In fact, the high quality of our service was once mentioned in the Canadian House of Commons, as the federal government defended the use of recorded messages in a system that receives millions of calls.

Music to My Ears
If you choose to engage your callers with information and music, choose the music – or the service that provides it – carefully. Heavy Metal or Hip Hop are obvious no-no’s, unless you know that’s what your clientele likes. Music that’s syrupy can be just as bad. There’s no hard and fast rule about musical style in telephone systems, but it’s a good idea to listen to the music over the phone yourself for an extended period. Have several of your colleagues do the same. Is it interesting, or a turn-off? Don’t forget that you must have a license to play this music or you could be infringing on copyright and intellectual property rights.

Most Music & Message services simply lay down some generic music and talk. But is that good enough? On-hold music and messages are basically radio commercials over the phone. The music should match and reinforce the message. Sometimes you want up-tempo. Sometimes a medium pace fits the script. But avoid music that’s too slow or melancholy. You don’t want to put callers to sleep or make them depressed. Also, be sure the music’s not too “busy”, or it will distract the listener and detract from your message. Ideally, music and messages should be produced with “posts” or musical highlights reinforcing the message. It often means editing the music to fit the script.

The on-hold option can be a great opportunity to talk about your products or services, but keep the caller informed about being in “priority sequence” and that if they hang up and call back, the wait will be even longer.

You Say Goodbye, But I Say...
If your system automatically disconnects the caller, don’t forget to thank the person for calling, and say good-bye. Otherwise, it’s like someone has just hung up on you.