Media Music Blog

It is inevitable that at one time or another, you have no alternative but to put your client on hold; however, make this your opportunity to demonstrate to them how professional your company is. This may be the only opportunity you have to do business with them so you can’t afford to get their on hold experience wrong. It is worth investing a little bit of time to get this right.

The on hold messages and background music needs to engage the caller, to defuse potential frustration. Make this an opportunity to educate and create a good impression of your company and products.

The Script

First and foremost, tell the caller where they are and thank them for calling. “Thank you for calling [Company Name], please hold, an advisor will be with you shortly” is a good start.

Don’t bombard them with all of your information at the start of your script, keep it segmented and concise. If you have 8 pieces of information to communicate, provide 8 short paragraphs so that your audio engineer(s) can spread it out over your chosen music. It will be received better in smaller chunks and combined more effectively with music.

After the initial greeting, make the first three on hold segments the most salient. These should be points that the caller will be interested in and ensure that they stay on the line.

For example, if your company is holding an annual event, has a special offer, a free magazine etc. make sure that this information is communicated in the few first messages.

You may say something like…

“Stay on the line and request your free magazine when you are connected”

OR

“Stay on the line and get your 15% discount code when you are connected”

Always try to tell them about things that may be of interest to them. Give them an incentive to stay on hold. Telling your caller that you offer a 15% discount at the weekends is much more helpful to them than continuously thanking them for holding.

Build confidence in your brand and provide your caller with good information. Here are a few ideas for this:

• Has you or you company won any awards?
• Do you / your company hold any relevant qualifications?
• What charitable foundation do you support?
• Do you attend / exhibit at any industry trade events?
• Do you have a useful blog or article archive?
• What do you do that is unique / not been done by your competitors?

Prolonged On Hold

After may be 1.5 - 2 minutes, it is always a good idea to say something like, “Thank you for continuing to hold, your patience is appreciated.”

It is also good at this stage to maybe offer some alternatives, for example… “Thank you for your patience, please continue to hold and we will be with you shortly. Alternatively, you can send an email to me@mycompany.com”

OR

“Thank you for your patience, please continue to hold and we will be with you shortly. Alternatively, you can order online at www.mycomapny.com”

OR

“Thank you for your patience, please continue to hold and we will be with you shortly. Alternatively, you can leave a message by pressing 0 and we will call you back”

Caller Frequency

How often will your customers call and be put on hold? If this is infrequent, having a single section of on hold audio created will probably be sufficient

If your customers call frequently, it may be worth getting your on hold section updated several times a year or have several on hold sections created in one go. You can rotate these on a regular basis to offer variety. This will give your regular callers the impression that you care about their on hold experience and the change can be very obvious to them, especially if the music is changed as well as the voice-over.

Also, don’t be afraid to mix and match voices, a variety of male and female voices can be used to create interest and variety for the caller.

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If you are considering having an on hold package created, please feel free to see what Media Music Now has to offer. http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/telephone_audio/

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As a Royal National Theatre trained sound technician, I spent many years listening to all sorts of mics from rifles to condensers, hyper cardiods to lavaliers and reckon I know a thing or two about decent sound quality. As well as live sound reinforcement, studio work was also a large part of my job and I was regularly driving the desk producing cast recordings and editing tape. Yes tape – that’s what we used in those days. If you wanted to edit-out a click or pop you actually had to get a razor blade and slice out a small piece of 2 – 4” tape, chuck it on the floor and re-join the original bits.

The main live shows I worked on tended to be musicals where sound quality was paramount. The objective was to raise the performers voice above a (usually) live band, but still keep the balance as “natural” as possible.

I worked on some of the biggest and best West End musicals but my favourite was probably “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” A musical based on the life of Elvis Presley, starring Martin Shaw and written by Alan Bleasdale (Boys from the Black Stuff). I used a range of Sennheiser microphones on that production but for me, the star of the show was a vintage Sure SM55, used by the “young Elvis.”

Anyway, fortunately nowadays you can plug a decent microphone directly into your PC / Mac and do all the editing on screen. However did we manage before the digital revolution (smiles ironically!)?

There are now several good USB microphones available in the marketplace, and quite a few more really bad ones so here are my recommendations:

I am a particular fan of Samson microphones since experimenting with their early radio mics back in the late 80s. I really liked their CO1 studio condenser microphone so was absolutely delighted when they produced a simple USB version, the Samson CO1U USB condenser mic.

This is a great little studio condenser microphone, solidly built with a warm sound (and for under £55, amazing value for money).

Other USB mics from the Samson camp include the new(ish) Samson G-Track USB Mic/Audio Interface and the excellent Samson CO3U USB condenser mic.

For me, one of the best bits about using a USB microphone is the massive noise reduction benefits. What do I mean? Well, in a typical studio setup, the condenser microphone is powered by a phantom power supply, plugged into the mixing desk, with a range of outboard effects “bussed” onto the desk - such as compression, reverb, auto-tune etc etc. Each one of these elements can introduce noise such as hum, hiss, crackles and RF (radio frequency “white noise,” when the cables / power supplies act as aerials). Each link in this chain of equipment has the potential for introducing a noise - and so I believe that more is less!

A USB microphone is powered by your computer, so no external power supplies are necessary (less noise), a virtual sound desk (complete with sliding faders and full eq) can be used on-screen and all the effects such as compression, normalisation, reverb etc. can be introduced in software - fantastic! The end result is a compact studio and first class fully digital recording with less noise than the old analogue counterpart.

Of course, the purists will say that you should really spend £2,000 - 3,000 on a microphone and £150,000 on a recording desk and many more thousands on outboard effects processors and, sure, if you happen to be Beyonce or Christina Aguilera - great! But for little old voiceover man / woman sitting in their sound-proofed broom cupboard, ahem… sorry, fully equipped digital studio - a USB mic will do just fine!

You Can Buy the Samson CO1U USB condenser mic plus Sonar LE at Amazon >

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About the Author: Anthony Richardson - OverVoice is a leading British professional voice over artist specialising in cost effective, Received Pronunciation (accent-free), voice overs for film, television, radio, animation and audiobooks.

He can be contacted via the website at: www.overvoice.co.uk

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1. Use trusted and experienced talent from a reputable company

The voice-over market is highly crowded these days; anybody with a microphone and a voice can enter the arena and publicise themselves on the web as a so-called “professional voice-over”.

As with any easily accessible marketplace, a flood of options is not always great for the end user. Quality, getting a professional recording and the voice-overs ability to deliver on time is far more important than having a million options to explore and consider.

As Google acts as a filter for billions of web pages, using a reputable supplier of trusted and accountable voice-overs is essential for homing in on a talented voice artist capable of delivering your project. A supplier or agent who has multiple voice-overs should be able to offer you a variety of options and their experience of the intricacies of voice hiring means that you have a professional and trusted company to be held accountable should anything turn out different than you expected.

2. Avoid Massive Voice-over Directories

Ok, you may find a talented voice-over for your project, however, being able to automatically post your job to thousands of voice talents in one go is not always the best idea. Many of these large sites have thousands of members because they allow anyone and everyone to join and pitch for jobs. Their business model is to let as many voice-overs as possible pay to join the site. In my experience, voice-overs who are established and credible avoid using these sites due to the overwhelming amount of amateur contenders.

3. Don’t look for a cheaper option!

Fact! If you get a quote for a professional job in this industry, you will not have to go far to get a cheaper quote. As I said earlier, the market place is accessible by anyone with a microphone and a voice. Opt for the cheapest contenders and you may well have to start again with one of the higher priced quotes. I have seen this happen so many times! As with most things, you get what you pay for and it is better to go with a respected company.

4. Treat the demo as the starting point!

So, you have found a voice-over and their demo reel sounds great and well produced. That is all you need to know… right? Wrong! There are numerous studios that will record and produce show reels for budding voice-overs. These can be fabricated to sound like previous jobs. This is not necessarily an issue, however, if you want to hire one of these voice talents you have got to bear in mind that the recording they produce without the assistance of a producer may be significantly lower in production quality than their professional demo / show reel.

The way to get round this is to use a reputable supplier of voice-overs. If you are dealing directly with the voice-over, ask them for an example of a recent job that is similar to yours and was recorded in their own studio. For example, if you are expecting them to record an audio book, ask them for an example of a previous recording. Their professionally produced montage of adverts, corporate narrations and on-hold messages may not necessarily demonstrate their ability to narrate your audio book in their own studio.

5. Be Clear and be fair

When requesting the services of a voice-over make sure that you are clear about your project requirements, your budget and your expectations. A good voice-over company should be able to explore the scope of your project and ask the right questions in order to get an accurate quotation from suitable vocal talents. However, it is your responsibility to give a clear overview of your project and its distribution / exposure. If the scope and involvement of the voice-over increases over the duration of the project, it is only fair that they may have to charge more than initially quoted. Ideally have a script or transcript available for the purpose of the quotation or estimate.

6. Allow a realistic time scale

This sounds obvious, however, it is a very common mistake to underestimate the time it takes to prepare a ‘ready to record script’, to listen to different voice-over demos, to record the first draft and to cover any re-records. For instance, it is no good rushing a finished script through at the last minute, 10 days after it was initially due, and then expecting a result the same day. Doing this right takes a predetermined period of time and requires booking in advance. Any voice-over that is sat there waiting to record your script on a moments notice is obviously not busy. Good voice-overs are always busy and have to manage their recording schedule carefully.

7. Don’t believe the lies…

This is just talking into a microphone, easy money! Not true! A professional voice-over has had years of experience in talking at the right tone, pace and speed. The position of the microphone also has to be given careful consideration to get the tone and professional sound that is required. They make it sound easy, but it isn’t! This is a professional skill that develops over many years, and even the most experienced voice-overs do numerous takes before sending the version(s) they are happy with.

The recording is just part of the process…removing the noticeable breaths, gaps, plosives / pops (caused by b’s & p’s) and saliva noises requires skilled audio editing techniques that require years of practice or can require the skill of an audio engineer. Ten minutes of produced voice-over does not equal ten minutes of talking into a microphone!

Many long running voice-over jobs can be exhausting for the voice-over; this is because most voice-over narrations are done in an unnatural style. For example, you would not naturally talk with a permanent happy tone or a permanent smile on your face. Often, voice-over jobs require this for extended periods of time. If you don’t believe me, try reading this article into a microphone in a voice-over style and then listen back to your efforts.

8. Re-records don’t take 2 minutes!

Re-records can be very time consuming; it is best to avoid them if possible by triple checking your script before recording starts. If you miss as little as one word this can result in a line, sentence or even a paragraph having to be re-recorded. It can be difficult for a voice-over to recreate the moment and get the flow and tone the same as in the original take. It is near impossible to record one word and drop it in. Also, any new audio has to be blended into the original recording, which requires intricate audio editing.

9. Expect a variety of fees

Voice-overs are like actors, the more well known they are, the more they charge. If they have just got the gig to do a long running series of ads on mainstream TV, it is unlikely that they will still be working for small fees. Furthermore, all voice-overs have different career structures and are able to charge whatever suits their industry position and current timetable. For this reason, it is near impossible to get a ballpark figure that applies to all voice-overs; it is nearly always necessary to get a quote per job based on the specific job details. A good provider of voice-overs should be able to efficiently get the job details and match your budget to the most appropriate voice-over(s).

10. Give Feedback…but be nice!

It is common for clients to be very communicative during the quotation and recording / production stage. However, it is not uncommon for the client to go quiet at the end of a project when they have what they need. This is ok, although the client that the voice-over remembers well into the future is the one that takes the time to pass on their appreciation and thanks. A simple thank you over email is nice and takes no time at all. If you let the voice-over know how pleased you are with their work they will be more likely to go the extra mile when you need their help in the future.

Finally…

If you consider all of the points above, you should be able to manage your or your clients voice-over requirements very successfully and above all, you should enjoy the creative process of choosing and using a professional voice-over.

Written by

Lee Pritchard

Media Music Now

© Copyright 2008

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If you need any help or advice regarding using voice-overs in your project, please feel free to contact us directly or through www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/contact/ Advice is free!

Also, if you are considering hiring a voice-over in the future please consider using Media Music Now as your provider. It does not cost you any extra as the fee is arranged between us and the voice-over(s). Our voice-over section is at www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/Media-voices/

We look forward to reading your comments

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