Now, we at Marketing Messages recommend that all our customers regularly update their MOH voice recordings, at least once every few months or so. Not only does a changing message allow you to update customers on your latest news, events, and deals, but it keeps regular customers from getting too bored as they listen to the same music and the same message on a loop every time they call. An active, engaging approach to MOH is always better than the static approach of just loading one message there and leaving it unchanged for years.

But for contact centers, a static message is not an option. It just won’t cut it.

Instead, contact centers are always better off developing a personalized call experience, one that incorporates targeted messaging to better inform and engage the waiting customer.

The technology that makes this targeted messaging possible is known as Advanced Call Queuing, and that is not the only new advantage that this technology provides.

But targeted messaging is itself a major gamechanger in the way that voice recordings can be used to improve and enrichen the customer experience. Advanced Call Queuing allows for the specific message to be chosen based on who is calling, where they are calling from, or what they are calling about. For example, if you are a retailer, a caller can be directed to a message specifically about whatever department they are looking to buy from.

Advanced Call Queuing for Call Centers also makes possible SMS text integration. That means that a customer can use their own phone, while still on hold, to receive additional information. For example, if a customer is calling with a tech question, at the push of a button they can receive a text with a link to documentation that might just answer the very question they are calling to ask, or at the very least provide additional insight that will make the call even shorter.

And finally, Advanced Call Queuing allows the customer to choose their own music while they wait. We all know the traditional Kenny G-ish jazz flavor that typically underscores waiting on hold. Some people don’t mind it, but for many folks that music sets their teeth on edge. With Advanced Call Queuing, the customer can choose the genre of music they would like to hear, and relax to that while waiting for someone to pick up.

But really, the best way to understand Advanced Call Queuing is to see it for yourself. Contact Marketing Messages today and we will be happy to set you up with a demo of this exciting new technology.

The post Introducing Advanced Call Queuing for Call Centers appeared first on Marketing Messages.

Voice talents come with numerous different abilities and strengths, and it is often the case that any one of a number of potential voices would be the correct fit for your company and message. What it largely comes down to is a personal preference for how one voice artist sounds versus any of the others.

But contact center prompts are very different from any other type of recording, and these IVR systems require something fundamentally different from the standard automated-attendant prompts used to direct customers around. And they require something different from the voice talent as well.

The specificity needed to make contact center voice recordings work all but requires the use of a trained, professional voice talent.

Contact center prompts are meant to simulate real human conversation, and this requires the use of voice talents with very specific skills, a very specific way of speaking, and a great deal of experience. This also requires the script has itself been carefully prepared in order to simulate the way human conversation sounds, which demands a bit of extra care and attention.

At Marketing Messages, we have also seen a real rise in the use of automated speech recognition at call centers. To better suit this growing need, the voice artist needs to be able to demonstrate a much broader range of emotions and inflections. To put it simply, the voice must have empathy if it is going to work.

But the inflection portion of the job is tricky as well. IVR prompts are often stitched together out of multiple fragments of sentences that can be joined together into different combinations based on a user’s choices and requirements.

In order to make this work within a phone system, the fragments are recorded as pieces and then stitched together as the system needs. A voice artist needs to inflect the beginning and/or ending of a fragment with rising, falling, or neutral inflection so the different pieces can fit seamlessly together. It takes skill and practice to pull off the smooth, natural sounds that allows for that kind of shuffling without feeling like an awkward jumble.

Professional voice artists, with their experience and equipment, are always a better option than going off and recording your own messages and prompts on some home user device. But for contact center voice prompts, the need is all the more pressing. If you want IVR voice recordings that will work both with the system and with the user, that is a special kind of job that will require a special kind of talent. Talk to us about your needs.

The post Why Contact Center Voice Prompts Are Different appeared first on Marketing Messages.

Pitfall #1

The first and most common pitfall is not considering the geography behind the version of Spanish that you will be deploying. There are many, many differences between European Spanish and Latin American Spanish (the latter being the most common used in the United States) and conflating the two, or using a voice artist who only speaks in one to try and voice the other, will result in a message that plays as gibberish to your desired clients.

Pitfall #2

That leads into the second pitfall: Not using a neutral accent. Along with the broad differences between European Spanish and LA Spanish, there are subtler, region-specific variants of the Spanish language. These differences can range from word choices to phrasing to differences in pronunciation, even if the sentences look identical on the page.

The best way to get around this pitfall is to have an actual Spanish speaker listen to whichever Voice Artist you have selected. With a practiced set of ears, they can determine if the selected Voice Artist has some kind of regional-specific accent that is altering the intended meaning of a specific message.

Pitfall #3

The final pitfall we frequently encounter is customers not using a bi-lingual Voice Artist. If a company is recording messages that are predominantly in English with only a couple lines, if that, in Spanish, it is tempting to just have the English speaker voice the Spanish as well.

Do not do this.

Assuming that the English speaker even manages to say the words correctly, (as previously mentioned, the Spanish language’s meaning is often as much about pronunciation as it is with the actual letters in a word) it will still sound sloppy and stilted. What that communicates to your Spanish-speaking customer is that they matter less, and their needs will not be seen to by your company.

Instead, if your message contains both English and Spanish, the best course of action will be to utilize a bilingual Voice Artist, someone who can deliver a neutral reading in both English and Spanish. For an example of this, visit our Voices page and listen to some audio examples from “Roxanne” and “Amy”. Choose either one of them, and you’ll avoid Spanish voiceover pitfalls. The benefits of a bilingual Voice Artist handling a bilingual script speak for themselves.

Need some help choosing a Spanish or bilingual Voice Artist for your next voice recordings? Contact us so we can learn about your business needs and then give you some recommendations.

The post How To Avoid Voice Over Screw-Ups: Spanish Edition appeared first on Marketing Messages.

When the pandemic first began to make a major impact, we at Marketing Messages saw a mad dash by many of our customers to update their messaging voice recordings to reflect things like changing hours of operation, changing methods of contact, and changing company circumstances.

Since that initial rush, we have found that only the more marketing-forward of our customers have continued to regularly update and refresh their messaging. While there is so much going on in the world that updating your messages can feel like the lowest priority thing to take care of, we encourage all our customers to routinely update their voiceover recordings to keep their own consumer base aware of where things stand.

For starters, it is important to make sure your customers know that you are still open! Many businesses remain shuttered, while others have been forced to drastically change their hours of operation. A customer can’t utilize your services if they don’t know you’re available to them. That is why it is also critical that part of your messaging be devoted to alerting customers to your hours of operation, especially if those hours are different from what they were pre-pandemic.

In fact, it is a good idea to let customers know about any changes to your operation, especially those changes which will remind your customers that it is safe to continue using your services. If you are a restaurant, make sure your on hold messages contain information about curbside pick-up. If you are in retail, talk about touchless forms of payment. And for healthcare, make sure your customers are aware of telemedicine best practices.

If your company is following guidelines set down by health organizations like the CDC or the WHO, make sure that this is part of your messaging as well. Make sure your customers are aware of the lengths you will go to in order for them to feel safe. That will make them much more comfortable taking advantage of all that you have to offer.

We have compiled examples and templates for these kinds of messages and prompts and will be happy to assist you with building messages that will best educate and inform your customers and keeping your messages up to date.

Please contact us today for whatever information or documentation you might need, and we will be happy to provide it.

The post Keep Your Messages Up to Date During the COVID Crisis appeared first on Marketing Messages.

Successfully deploying a multi-language project is a huge undertaking, with numerous pitfalls that can slow the process down. It is very easy for such a project to become even more complex, and even more expensive, if steps are not taken to make sure that the script is in the best possible shape before it goes out for recording.

Step #1: Identify and engage script reviewers upfront.

This might seem self-explanatory, but you would not believe the number of projects we have encountered where it is unclear who in an organization has the final say on what is going to be recorded.

So before you send a script out for the process of editing, translating, recording, and then implementation, ask yourself some simple questions: Who will review the initial script? Will the translations need to be verified and validated before being sent for recording? Who will be performing the final audit on the audio? In the event of any disputes, who has the final say on the project?

Having answers to these questions in advance removes numerous impediments and speedbumps to the process.

Step #2: Clarify what should be in English vs. the native language.

In general, translators and voice talents will translate every single word within a script, and amend the language to be grammatically correct to their native language. To avoid any confusion, it will be wise to identify right from the start which words and phrases need to remain in English, even as the rest of the text is altered.

The most common exceptions we have found are company names, product and service names, location addresses, and certain technical terms and phrases. Abbreviations, phone numbers, and websites are also common items that customers ask to be kept in English. In some cases, a customer will ask that the words in a website address remain in English while the “www” or “com” are to be read with a native pronunciation.

Marketing Messages Voice Artists can to handle any such specifications, but it is important to have this clarity before any recording takes place. It just makes everyone’s life easier.

Step #3: Engage a professional translation service to avoid voiceover screw ups.

Over and over again, we have seen customers try to dodge around this step by using someone in-house who might have a working knowledge of a particular service, or some kind of free translation software like Google Translate. While these services might be able to translate specific words, grammar, meaning, and intent are often non-factors.

To see this point illustrated, plug some English text into Google Translate, then re-translate the results back into English. The end-product is almost always either gibberish or something that is ‘technically’ correct but so awkward and unnatural as to have the same impact as gibberish. And since you have nothing to check your translation against, you have no way of knowing how effective your new script is or isn’t.

Working with professional translators erases all this uncertainty and ensures that your message will be tailored to native speakers who will be calling in.

Just these small steps go a long way towards not only making your messages comprehensible, but letting your customers know that they are dealing with a thoughtful, professional organization who will put the time and effort in to meet a customer’s needs.

In the same way, all of us at Marketing Messages are here and ready to put in the extra step to make sure you get the audio experience that you need and avoid voiceover screw ups!

The post Avoiding Voice Over Screw-ups in Your Multi-language Projects appeared first on Marketing Messages.

Update Your Messages

Once they have created and installed their Messages-on-Hold, it is common for businesses to leave that MOH up, unaltered, for an indefinite length of time. But while the on hold messages will keep playing for as long as they’re left installed, keeping the message completely static is a waste of a valuable opportunity to keep customers informed and excited.

Regularly updated, a good on hold message can serve as a compelling marketing asset. You just have to be sure to fill the message with the right kind of information to keep a customer engaged and attentive.

It is tempting to load up a MOH script with descriptions of all of your business’s various features and functions, but in our experience, we have found that these sort of messages tend to go in one ear and out the other for the consumer. Customers get quickly bored with these recitations, especially if they call in regularly and have to hear the same voice describing the same services over and over again.

Watch Video:

What customers find much more engaging are actual resources and advice that you can give for your particular field, or navigating to the desired outcome within your specific company. For example, direct your customer to your website’s dedicated Resource Center, or promote your company’s podcast or White Papers if you have them. You will see much more engagement with the customer if you create these tangible connections within your organization or business.

Another great use of Messages-On-Hold is to promote sales, events, business functions, etc. Suddenly, instead of being a static, forgotten feature of your phone system, your MOH is an active promotional arm alerting anyone who calls in about the big goings on that you have going on. That kind of easy promotion provides an incalculable amount of client engagement for any project or event.

An active organization should update their Messages-On-Hold at least four times a year, if not more. If nothing else, changing up your message will make the experience of waiting on hold a more pleasant encounter for the customer.

And at the end of the day, aren’t we all hoping for a happy customer?

Here at Marketing Messages, we are more than happy to put in the time to help you develop your Messages-On-Hold scripts to make sure you are putting out the best information possible to capture the customer’s attention and communicate just exactly what you need to be said. Schedule a time to speak with us!

The post For Best Results, Keep Your On Hold Messages Current appeared first on Marketing Messages.

Here’s how it works: You choose three songs from our selection of Holiday music, and we will then take the existing voice recording and swap in this new music. It’s easy, it’s fast, and it’s free!

And for any customer interested in upgrading their entire message, we can help with that as well. We are currently offering our VoiceCentral Messages-On-Hold subscription service with the first six months free! You read that right: If you sign up for VoiceCentral as part of this offer, you get six months of free messaging!

But you don’t have to take my word for it. There’s a certain big, red fellow who took a break during his busiest time of the year to help explain our offer. Take it away, Kris Kringle.

Thanks, Santa!

Besides contributing to the general merry mood, playing holiday music during your on-hold phone messages can have a real, positive impact on your customers, whether your business ranges from banking, to retail, to transportation, to medical, to everything in between. Holiday music is an audio cue that something is different, which will keep your customers paying attention and engaging longer. Christmas music puts people in a happier mood, and happier people spend more!

And if nothing else, this is an opportunity for you to review and refresh your messages. It’s not uncommon for messages to be left playing long after the deals being offered and the specifics being mentioned have changed. With this special offer, you can refresh your messages to align with other marketing programs, promote your own holiday specials, and fix any outdated or incorrect messaging.

If you’re not using the same professional voice talent for your auto attendant greetings to create a consistent, branded caller experience, we can provide new recordings for those as well. We’ll be happy to provide you with our Auto Attendant Guidelines and Examples documents, which sample prompts that spark new ideas for expanding the value of your auto attendant system.

From our family to yours, all of us here at Marketing Messages wish you the happiest of holidays, no matter what you celebrate. We hope to talk with you soon, but if not, then here’s to many happy returns in the new year!

The post Holiday Upgrade to Your Messages-On-Hold! appeared first on Marketing Messages.