The Pros and Cons of Professional Voice Recordings for Your Business Phone System
No matter how small or large your business, you want to project a professional image. Chances are that you have spent a hefty amount of both time and money on business cards, waiting room furnishings, your company logo, and signage. This is understandable. No one wants their company to be looked at like a kid’s lemonade stand. You want your company to be looked at like Starbucks.
While it’s true that your clients and potential clients will most likely see your business online or via a business card first, it’s just as important that your company sounds as professional as it appears, and that means having your business greeting, phone menu and voice mail sound qualified and adept.
People Still Prefer Using the Telephone
A recent survey found that at least 70 percent of respondents would rather speak to someone on the phone than use online chat or set appointments online. It might seem old-fashioned, but in many cases, your customers still want to speak to a real live person. This means when they call your company, what they hear on the other end truly matters!
When a potential client calls your business, they’re usually still building that initial impression of your business. What do you want them to think of your company? Do you want them to downgrade their opinion because of a hastily recorded greeting? Or worse, do you want to risk them hanging up because the greeting is inaudible, incoherent or just plain annoying?
When you consider all of the above, it seems like a no-brainer to avoid using the business owner, an employee, friend or relative to record the company greeting and call-in menu. Instead, we recommend trusting this important task to a voice-over professional who can record the company greetings and related messages for your phone system.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of doing it yourself vs. hiring a pro:
The Cost
Pro: It’s cheaper to do it myself! No one can deny this aspect, and we suspect that this is the #1 reason behind those annoying, non-professional voice recordings.
Con: Do you want to come across as cheap? We’re betting that you want your business to sound top notch and thoroughly professional, putting existing and potential clients at ease when they call you. How much business could you be losing by having a hasty, DIY recording?
Flexibility
Pro: But my employee sounds great! S/he can record a new message any time I want! No one will deny this statement, either. You can have your employee record holiday greetings, record advertising specials for those on hold, and an assortment of other messages.
Con: What happens when your employee leaves the company? While you could leave that employees voice on your system, what happens if/when you need to change any part of the recording? Have you ever heard different voices on a company recording? It sounds very disjointed and out of place.In addition, let’s not forget that whatever position your employee has at the company, you’ll need to pull them away from their regular tasks to have them do your recordings. It is not uncommon for an untrained person to have to re-record messages a dozen times before you get a message that you are willing to use. Unless your business standards are much lower, of course, and we doubt that.Lastly, even if your employee’s voice sounds good to you, there are a host of other issues that you may not be aware of, such as speaking too quickly or too slowly, background noise or even breathing noise.
Automated Technology
Pro: I can use a voice-to-text app that let’s my computer do the talking. It takes almost no time and costs me almost nothing! This is a common shortcut that many new business owners seem to enjoy. You simply type in your phrases and the computer puts out the words in sentences.
Cons: Computer-generated voices sound like…computer-generated voices. While using a text-to-voice app is a good stop-gap measure until you can hire a professional, the fact is that most people do not like those computer voices. These voices come across exactly as what they are: cold and impersonal, as if you are nothing more than an annoying phone call to answer and the company doesn’t have time for you. Is that how you wish to sound to your clients?
Hiring a Professional Voice Artist Will Give You What You Want
Let’s think about it another way. You would probably hire a plumber if your building had a serious water leak, you would hire a contractor to replace the roof, and you most likely have an IT consultant on staff (or a phone call away) because you don’t have the skills or the time to tackle those things yourself.
So why leave your company phone greeting to an amateur? Hiring a professional will get you exactly what you want: A pleasing voice that sounds professional and welcoming, delivering the messages clearly and at the correct rate of speed. When you work with a professional, you can even feel proud when someone calls your company.
Even the tone of the person’s voice can make all the difference, and it represents your company more than you realize. You can have a voice recording that sounds polished and polite, or more relaxed and inviting.
Professional voice recordings do cost money, but so do many other things for your business, including computers, office chairs, and that complimentary coffee. Think of this as an investment in your company that will pay off with an increase in business.
The Bottom Line
With so much competition, customers today are choosy. You should be choosy about your business as well. Seek out the best for your company, including your VoIP service and your company’s auto attendant voice. Open One Solutions can not only deliver the best VoIP service for your business, but we have professional voice personnel we recommend to give your company the professionalism you want. Call us today to learn more.