The IVR Clinic with Allison Smith

The 15 Commandments of IVR

Commandment #10: “Name Your Company Something That Needs No Special Instruction”
Thanks for your patience while I took a break from the “15 Commandments of IVR” Series to report from AstriCon – I’m back with the latest and one of the most pivotal installments of the series: Commandment #10: “Name Your Company Something That Needs No Special Instruction” – however, I acknowledge that it’s probably too late to implement this.

By the time they hire me to voice their IVR’s, the opportunity has likely already passed to talk to people about why they’ve named their companies what they have — many late nights have already been spent and reams of legal yellow paper consumed brainstorming about how to make their company’s name as unique and significant as possible; coming up with imaginative and innovative ways of spelling ordinary words to make them their own, riffing on existing words and modifying them to make them unique, or building a name from several different components which represent their company; a name which will identify their organization and which will no doubt look great on letterhead, website, booth banners, and business cards.

I am astounded at how many companies have me re-do their opening messages — after having voiced them to the best of my ability — due to mis-pronouncing their company’s name. I’ve even had clients — at the outset of a job — send an intonation file of *them* voicing the company’s name — or they schedule a pre-recording call with me — because (in their words): “The company name is kind of tricky — in fact, almost everybody gets it wrong! But it’s really important that you voice the opening message with the definitive pronunciation..”

I’ll say! I would think it would be crucially important that *everyone* say it in the “definitive way”, from the receptionist to the UPS delivery man to the people manning your booth at a trade show to someone seeing it for the first time. While it’s important that your company name be unforgettable, distinct, not apt to be confused with your competitor’s, and easy to recall, it should also probably not need a special tutorial on how to pronounce it properly.

I’ll add even further to that list, and suggest that not only is it important that your company’s name visually *look* impressive — I submit that it is crucial that the name actually “scans” to ear effectively. You will be *saying* your company’s name probably more than people will see it in its written form. You need to take into consideration how easy the name will be to “hear” — and to “say” — and imagine someone hearing your company name for the first time and immediately turning to type it into a web browser — wouldn’t you want to ensure that they hit *your* website every time; that your site is as easy as possible to find, and that the complex and unique spelling of your company’s name isn’t snagging their search?

Suppose — after much late-night work shopping, you’ve decided to call your exciting, innovative company “Ignyshyn”. Cool, right? A play on the word “Ignition”! It sounds just the same as the mainstream word, but it’s spelled so……imaginatively!

I’m officially begging you to re-think any and all clever liberties taken with the spelling of words to snazz up your company’s moniker. It needlessly complicates the name, and makes it almost impossible for customers to find you — especially if you don’t take measures to have your voice talent painstakingly spell out the website (“Go to Ignysyn.com. That’s I-G-N-Y-S-H-Y-N, dot com”) — which a surprising number of clients don’t have me do.) Do they just presume people are going to magically type in “Newtrality.com” or “Akwizytion.com”? Chances are, (especially if the difference in spelling isn’t pointed out in the copy), they’ll follow what their ear is telling them and go to “Neutrality.com” and “Acquisition.com”, experience brief confusion, and move on to your competition.

Especially vexing are company names with numerals written in — some seem straightforward (“Innov8?) but even those also frequently come with instructions to point out the play on words (“but try not to really say ‘eight’ at the end..”) and others are just plain befuddling (“4ti2de” — “fortitude”. Gah!)
I recently read the opening greeting for a company who decided to make their name an amalgam of the founder’s first names — similar to “Johareth, Inc.” Given no guidance as to the pronunciation, I went for the pronunciation: “Joe-HARR-eth.” Turns out, the names the title is based on were actually Johann, Harry, and Ethan — it would be more like “Yo-HAIR-eeeth.” But how was I to know? And how will the customers of Johareth possibly know? Especially without the “tutorial” on how to pronounce it.

I submit some very strong cases in point: some of the most recognizable and profitable companies operating today do so under names which have practically no chance of mis-interpretation, mis-pronunciation, and have zero confusion associated with the names: Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Google. Nobody’s inclined to say “Ibbim” instead of saying the individual letters of “IBM”; I would wager that there has never been an operator at Microsoft who had to correct a customer calling in: “Well, actually, it’s pronounced “MY-crow-soft”, not “MEEK-ro-soft…”, and even at first glance at the nonsensical, entirely manufactured word “Google”, you instantly knew how to say it, and I’ll bet you never slipped and called it “Goggle” (or typed in “Gewgal” as a search term.)

Simplicity, accessibility, and a turnkey approach to naming your company is key — the name should speak for itself. It should stand alone. It should not be an unpronounceable in-joke, and it only benefits you and your company if you create as simple a path as possible for customers to find you.
Join me here in about two week’s time, where I will continue with #11 in our series: “Don’t Go Overboard With Niceties” – a common occurrence in on-hold systems and IVR prompts alike – you can have too much of a good thing!

Thanks for reading!

If you've been on hold, listened to the public airwaves, participated in an automated phone survey, you've probably heard Allison Smith. Allison can deliver sound files with incredibly fast turnaround, and a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

The IVR Clinic with Allison Smith

Allison Smith, The Asterisk Voice

The 15 Commandments of IVR

Commandment #6: “Understand What Constitutes a ‘Prompt’”

This series of “commandments”, guiding you to writing clear, easy-to-understand IVR prompts is venturing into the “fine-tuning” mechanics of constructing prompts – this latest commandment: “Understand What Constitutes a Prompt” is an important aspect to grasp in order to make sure that all your options in your phone tree are covered by a corresponding prompt – and that you understand how much you’re purchasing from your voice talent.

When you order Asterisk prompts via the Digium site, there is a pricing algorithm in which an increment of funds buys a certain block of words. When hired independently, I (and most other voice talent) charge by the prompt. Up to ten modest-sized prompts fits into my half-hour prorate; anything over that constitutes the hour rate. The most common question I hear back from clients (especially those new to the process) is: “What constitutes a prompt?”

Basically, from edit point to edit point. Where a prompt needs to be cut in order to be a free-floating entity, ready to be plugged into your phone tree anywhere it needs to concatenate with other prompts. The prompt below would be universally recognized to be a “prompt”: “Thank you for calling Morrison, Incorporated – the nation’s number-one ranked search engine optimization company. Please make your selection at any time: for sales, press 1. For Accounting, press 2. For Marketing, press 3. For all other enquiries, press 0. Thanks again for calling Morrison, Incorporated.” Very straightforward.

Others: not so much. Below are other examples of “prompts” – which, while they look like fragments and not at all complete entities, are prompts in and of themselves, because they need to be edited into just that little bite-sized piece, in order to concatenate into a sequence:
“….is away from his desk.”
“The department you have selected…”
“…four…”
…..each of the above prompts edits exactly where they begin and end – hence they are each a “prompt”. (Number sequences are particularly befuddling to people – and, in fact, there’s a bit of an in-joke in the telephony voice-over community, where we imitate customers who say: “I only have about five prompts – oh, and the numbers 1 to 100”. A number sequence from 1 to 100 only actually takes about 10 minutes to voice – to edit each number into a separate sound file is about an hour and a half of studio time.)

Trick question: below is a single prompt, correct?:
“You have entered (insert extension number), the desk of (insert staff member’s name) in the (insert staff member’s department). Unfortunately, (staff member) is unavailable to take your call. Please leave a message, and (staff member) will return your call between the hours of (insert staff member’s office hours). Thank you for calling!”

Incorrect. Fifteen separate prompts, actually, and more, depending on how many extension numbers there are, how many staff member’s names and departments there are, and how many office hour options there are. It needs to be pointed out that the above sequence cannot run continually – each option requires a break in the file, and another file to play the option, so it really should be written as such:
1. You have entered…
2. …Extension 101…
3. …Extension 102…
4. …Extension 103 (and so on…)
5. …the desk of…
6. …Frank
7. …Mike
8. …Sven (and whomever else is assigned an extension)
9. …Accounting Department.
10….Marketing Department. (And any other departments you need)
11. Unfortunately…
12. …is unavailable to take your call. Please leave your message, and…
13. …will return your call between the hours of…
14. 9 Am to 5PM, Pacific Standard Time (and any other schedule possibilities you need)
15. Thank you for calling!

While it may seem like hair-splitting, for an IVR designer to have a clear understanding of which prompts he needs for every available option, and to have an understanding of how a sound engineer (or voice talent) needs to break them into separate sound files, the recording and editing of the files will occur smoothly, and it will prevent you from going over-budget – an all-important consideration.

The next commandment in our series is one of my favorites: #7: “Understand the Effects of Proper Pronunciation in Concatenation” – amazingly simple tools which are guaranteed to give your prompts just the right inflection.
Thanks for reading!