4 Factors to consider when choosing a voice for your telephone system recordings

Instead of using "Bob from accounts with the nice voice" to record your company telephone system greetings and messages, why not employ the services of a professional voiceover artist. They will provide you with quality recordings to give your business a professional sound and image. So when deciding which voice should represent your company here's 4 factors to consider.

1. Gender :  The majority of all telephone system recordings are recorded by female voice talents, however, you may find that a male voice is more suited to your industry or organization, especially if you represent an industry traditionally associated with men.

2. Age : This refers to the age of the voice rather than the age of the voice actor.  Some voice artists have a younger sounding voice than their age in years, others, for example, have a middle-aged sound even though they are only in their early twenties.  What sound would reflect your customer base the best?  Would a young, funky, street sound work better than a mature, sophisticated, informative style?

3. Style:  Depending on what your company offers, you may want to consider matching the style of voice to your products and services.  If your company is a health-care provider for example, would a warm, comforting voice be a more suitable style.  Alternatively, if you're a Sports wear retailer, an upbeat, energetic voice would better reflect your company services.

4. Accent: What accent would your customers prefer to hear?  Would a local or regional accent be expected by your callers?  Would they prefer to listen to a dialect that matches their own?  Alternatively, maybe you would like your phone system to have a more exotic sound.  Several US companies deliberately choose to employ a British accent voice artist to bring a global feel to their recordings.  It may also be worth considering employing a bi-lingual voiceover talent if your customer base has a large foreign language bias.  Many companies choose to record their phone prompts in both English and Spanish for example.

You could say that your voice over will only be as effective as the voice talent that you cast, so script and choose wisely!

Written by Alison Pitman. For further information about the author and to hear her voice demos visit http://www.thephonevoice.com