Custom IVR Scripting
Allison can write engaging prompts which are tailored to your company’s brand and messaging, and tell your company’s story professionally and cohesively.
Messaging That Connects With Your Customers
Your prompts will be fluid, easy to use, and will always have the customer’s time and patience as a priority.
Integrations That Work
Allison’s prompts are digital, clean, and will fit in any existing system. Updates and changes are easy and seamless. Auto attendant, on hold, call center and conference prompts; all in the same consistent voice for a seamless integration.
Order IVR Voice Prompts
Ordering customized IVR and On Hold prompts from The IVR Voice – voiced by Allison Smith – has never been easier! Simply enter your script and obtain a word count and total – and with one click, you can pay securely and instantly for your prompts.
Allison's Clients
A select list of Allison’s clients
Why is it important to have your IVR voiced by a professional?
Everybody talks, but not everybody should voice their own telephone system. A professional talent brings a smoothness and seamlessness to the prompts and tells your customers that your business is legitimate and professional.
ABOUT ALLISON
Chances are, you’ve already heard Allison Smith.
If you’ve ever entered your pin number into your telephone banking account, you’ve probably heard the voice of Allison Smith guiding you through the call. If you’ve participated in a telephone survey, most likely it was Allison’s voice that encouraged you to rate your satisfaction. Ever signed onto a conference call, listened to the public airwaves, took an online training module, or received an automated phone reminder for an upcoming medical or dental appointment? That's her. She’s even been that voice that reminds you to take your ticket at the parking garage.
Allison Smith | The IVR Voice
I am sent IVR scripts weekly that make me pause. Luckily, I have the standing in my industry that allows me to be a bit more “collaborative” with clients and make suggestions which would have been unheard of as a new voice talent. (I’m reminded of an audio engineer placing me in front of a mic in my formative years as a voice talent and cautioning me against speaking up with any input to the clients behind the glass unless specifically asked. Copy that.) When a script is submitted for me to record, and the client stipulates: “Have a look and let me know if anything needs changing..” that’s a gift from heaven. They’re open to changes and they want the script to flow as smoothly as possible – not only to the eye, but to the ear. Here's some things that the writers of IVR scripts do which unconsciously hobble their IVR and make it awkward and inelegant to use: You Haven’t Read it Out Loud The visual word is very different from the auditory word. A script which seems to scan just fine to the eye, might actually be a full-on tongue-twister for the voice talent in the booth. I always encourage people to find a quiet room and read their IVR script out loud. If you find some phrasing awkward; if you encountered a combination of words which just don’t sound right together, even a pro talent won’t be able to make that work. Re-write it until it *sounds* right – not just “reads” right. You’re Not Thinking Like a Caller You need to listen to your IVR through the ears of a customer. If your content on your phone system is too lengthy, too much of a challenge to maneuver through, or requires too much energy, this will frustrate callers – and it would frustrate you too. Try to experience your phone system with fresh ears, and decide if you’d still stick around and be a customer if you were encountering that IVR for the first time. It’s also helpful to think about the last time you personally called into a company and encountered “IVR Hell” – what was it that made that feeling of despair come up? Too many choices? Choices which were too similar? You felt like you were being put through an “audition” to get to the “reward” of live service? That’s a hobbled IVR. You Have Needless Information I’ve you’ve included information just because it seems to be prevalent in other phone systems, you could be hobbling your IVR by including these things which are meaningless and just taking up space. Phrases like: “please listen to the entire menu before making your selection” or “our menu has recently changed” are things that A: are unimportant to callers and B: are meaningless. Make sure everything in your scripting serves a purpose and is there because it needs to be there, not just because it seems to be the “norm” that you’ve heard in other systems. You’re Missing Information It amazes me when companies include details that aren’t really important and miss critical information that could really help their callers. A good example of that would be driving directions, which companies still feel compelled to mention. Driving directions have never been something that a caller could follow real-time, and they are notoriously lengthy and arduous (you need to anticipate every direction a caller might be driving in from and direct accordingly.) Everyone has GPS on their phone and as part of their car’s console and can easily navigate to your facility. That problem was solved long ago. What they *do* need help with is: parking. Where to park, where not to park, how much parking is. Office hours are beneficial to know *if* they can be imparted in an economical, concise way. If there are different hours for each day of the week, make that a separate option for some one to choose if they really need to drill into that. Make sure that you’re including information that will truly benefit the caller and eliminate everything else. You might be unintentionally hobbling the effectiveness of your IVR by being inefficient in the information you’re imparting, and not really seeing the experience through the eyes (and ears) of your callers. The customer’s impression of your company starts with the phone system – and if your IVR is confusing, hard to use, wastes their time, or burdens them with information they don’t need, your IVR is getting in your way, instead of being the useful tool it can be.
Many times, when I’ve called into a larger company and encounter a call center agent, I often get the distinct impression that they are gatekeepers. Protectors of the company. The velvet rope that keeps the customer on *their* side of the transaction, the intermediary between the caller and the reward. It’s very much an “us and them” situation. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that call center agents are important ambassadors of the company. They are the front line of the company’s customer-facing telephony transactions, and they have a massive responsibility to represent the company favorably. Caller’s impressions often are made (or broken) on these interactions between agent and the customer, and it’s crucial to get it right. One bad interaction with a call center agent, and the customer will be looking to your competitors to spend their money. From the hiring of agents to the training and monitoring, measures must be taken to ensure that the most genuine, responsive, empathetic, and innovative people are put in those agent’s chairs. They need to be able to know – and stick to – the parameters of what they’re allowed to authorize (and what they’re not) – and also listen accurately to the customer and go off the script when the moment calls for it. But it’s a little more granular than that: agents should keep a truism in their mind at all times: the person on the other end of the phone line is why you have a job. Yes, you are hired by the company, and you are there to handle the front line of the customer experience on behalf of the company. But in a nutshell: never forget: You are there for the customer. They are calling in because they have transacted with the company, and they have an issue/concern/problem they need a solution to. Your job is not to say no. It’s actually to say yes. You may be under a great deal of pressure from the company to maintain the bottom line, keep costs down, and to not be freewheeling with resources, refunds, or exchanges. But without customers, there are no resources. Many call center agents have lost sight of that all-important customer/company dynamic, and it needs to be revisited. I have some suggestions to bring you back to that ideal of a truly responsive call center agent. This is a rare opportunity. I’ve said it before in this blog space: the caller has already been to your website and have either not found a solution to their issue, or their issue is so unique or problematic, it didn’t show up in your FAQs or your pre-programmed chatbot. When a caller calls in, it’s a rare opportunity to take that sticky situation and make it the starting point of a rebuilt or restored relationship. It’s a massive golden opportunity that should be taken seriously and handled carefully. Customers are not the enemy. Your company doesn’t want that customer to disappear. They want you to do whatever is reasonable to make sure that they’re a happy, repeat customer. Within judicious parameters, the company is prepared to make any trouble situation right. The customer is not an obstacle to your success, and they are not the enemy, Maintain their business at all costs. We all know the truism about how much money it actually costs to win back a customer, as opposed to keeping a customer. Nothing’s changed, and it’s still true. Every effort should be made (within reason) to make sure they stay customers (and tell others – verbally or online – whether or not other people should give the company their business.) A smooth call center interaction ensures that the current customer stays a customer, and in our review-based commerce society, that others should be encouraged to be customers as well. So often – when I’ve engaged with a call center agent – I feel like just another call they need to get through; there seems to be a genuine lack of interest in trouble-shooting the caller’s problem, and I’m read to from a script with a prescribed “solution”. It’s important to call center agents are empowered to make decisions on their own, use their instincts to address the problem off-script, and to never forget that you are there for the customer.
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ALL THE IVR VOICE SERVICES YOU NEED IN ONE PLACE
Allison Smith offers a variety of voice over services, including voicing, engineering and producing a huge number of voice applications you hear everyday
