How to Create Great Sounding Auto Attendant Recordings

Despite the rapid growth of online customer service tools, 79% of consumers would still prefer to contact a business  over the telephone. With the introduction of business VoIP office phone systems that affordable to small businesses, productivity has increased due to the different helpful features in the system. One such feature is the automated attendant system or virtual operator.

As a business owner, you have invested a lot in your business. And we’re not just talking about financial investments, either. You have invested your time, talent, effort, energy, passion and even your personality into it. We get it, because we are the same way. However, have you invested in professional auto attendant recordings for your brand?  While your VOIP auto attendant system is not a living, breathing human being, it is however  responsible for a significant number of customer side encounters that are crucial for customer satisfaction and retention.

Most of the time the only interaction that takes place between a business and a customer is through an automated attendant system, and the impression you build during the call goes a long way. Organizations need to ensure that a conversation with a customer is as effective as possible.

If you want to optimize the advantage of an auto attendant for your business then here are some top strategy tips to help you create awesome auto attendant greetings:

Think about call flow as you begin your menu design.

Auto attendant recording design is crucial for customer satisfaction and retention. Consumers surveyed say they’ll do business elsewhere after a frustrating experience with an automated greeting especially with companies who have high call volume. Some auto attendant systems irritate callers quickly if they aren’t designed well. The top frustrations with automated attendants are lengthy introductions (29%) and having a long list of menu options (29%) — which suggests that businesses should aim for brevity and simplicity in the call menu design. Keep them short, and give out the most frequent options first to direct callers quickly to the department they’re seeking.

Use the best voice for your brand’s image.

Let’s face it, impressions matter. Whatever your industry, prospective customers are constantly sizing you up to get to the core of what you’re really about. And this isn’t exclusive to business interactions.

Your business’ phone system greeting is typically the first point of contact between your company and your customers. The greeting message used here can make or break the customer’s experience on a call. Remember, the sound of your business is equally as important as its look.  Your logo, brand colors, business cards speak volumes about what your business is all about, and so does the voice heard on your phones automated attendant system.

While it might seem enticing to have one of your staff record your phone menu greeting in your own voice, you should approach this with extreme caution, because what happens if that staff member leaves? Not only will lack brand consistency by having multiple voice for different recordings, but you also run the risk of sounding amateur. Instead, professional phone menu recordings means no background noise, garbled voices, or cut off messages.  Instead, you get  clear, concise voice prompts that ensure your customers are having the best possible experience when they call your business.

What should my auto attendant greetings say?

Sometimes clients come to us saying, “I listened to your demos, and I have picked a great voice talent for my phone greetings, but I’m not sure where to start with the script. What do I do?”  While we usually then provide a thorough consultation to develop the best strategy, however below we have outlined some ideas to help get you started.

Step 1:

Identify what options are frequently used and be sure to put those first. While we encourage you to keep greetings short and to the point. In some cases, you may want to consider additional information that you can include that would add value to the callers experience.  For example, you may want include your website url, or emergency contact numbers.

Step 2:

Nothing frustrates a caller more than calling a business when they’re closed. For this reason you will likely want to have both a standard greeting informing callers of normal operating hours, but you should also have an after hours greeting. Additionally, you may want to consider greetings for when you may be closed due to a holiday or inclement weather.

Step 3:

Eliminate any time sensitive material or information. Unless you plan to update your recording frequently, you will want to exclude any information that dates your greetings (i.e. mentioning seasonal promotions).

You’ll need to know what file types are supported!

While your VOIP system allows you to upload audio files for custom greetings, one thing most providers fail to tell their customers are the required file type needed.  Different providers such as Nextiva, Allworx, Ring Central, etc support different file formats. This is not something the average consumer is going to know about, and as a result can often become frustrating when they try create files that are too large in size or are the wrong format and get rejected by the system.

With dozens of manufacturers in existence and new platforms being released every day, there are a multitude of options for businesses. Fortunately, our team is experienced in working with most major VOIP systems and know the file type needed, and as a full-service digital production studio we can produce in any required format required.

In order to help you determine what you need, we have listed below the more common file types below:

• PCM –  (pulse code modulation) refers to an uncompressed .wav file
• U-Law –  (also known as mu-law) and A-Law are special compression schemes
• ADPCM –  (adaptive pulse code modulation) differs from PCM, in that the PCM .wav files are stored using linear samples, while ADPCM uses deltas between samples.
• G711 –  is a type of U-Law or A-Law
• MP3 –  is not frequently supported, but can be used on some provider platforms.
  

Final Thoughts…

As stated above, more times than not, the only interaction that takes place between a business and a customer is through a phone call, and the impression build during the call goes a long way. This interaction usually begins with your initial automated phone attendant. Organizations need to ensure that a conversation with a customer is as effective as possible.

This not only ensure the the best possible telephone customer interaction, but when done correctly, auto attendant can enhance the productivity of the agents working on managing customer services by connecting the right customer to the right agent.

If you’re to dump your amateur sounding auto attendant greetings, and are ready to sound more professional and provide a better caller experience, contact Original On Hold today!