Your Brand’s Phone Voice

“Companies spend millions on advertising, public relations and brand building activities to make the phone ring. But when the prospect calls, they’re greeted by automated voice systems with prerecorded voices that share little with the brand they’ve worked so hard to create in the consumer’s mind.” -- Marcus Graham (CEO, GM Voices)

Yeah … why is it that automated voice systems are devoid of personality?

For brands that have a distinct personality, they seem to abandon that personality when you call their toll-free customer line. Instead of hearing the unique brand voice the company has carefully crafted, you are subjected to hearing a milquetoast, monotone, and slow-cadenced voice which sounds nothing like the brand you have come to know and appreciate.

Recently I stumbled across a remarkable website that highlights this branding disconnect. Top 100 Voice Brands is the work of Marcus Graham and his company, GM Voices. On this site, he documents the Voice Brand of companies by streaming recordings of company’s automated voice systems.

Yes … you read that right … you can stream the Voice Brand of companies like Starbucks, Adidas, Silicon Graphics, Whirlpool, American Express, and Viacom.

I may be a freak, but I was fascinated by this and have listened to nearly a third of the recordings.

And Marcus is right … practically all of these Voice Brands lack the personality their marketing departments have so meticulously tried to craft. If marketers are determined to impact consumers at every customer touch-point, then why haven’t they placed more of an emphasis on expressing a brand’s personality through their automated voice systems?

Go to any brand’s website and for the most part, it looks/feels like the brand you have come to know. Now call the toll-free number of that brand and all of a sudden it's like you are hearing a totally different brand … a brand jacked up on Prozac.

Now, occasionally you will run across a Voice Brand that stands out. Whenever I used to call the 800-number for Cliff Bar, I would inevitably laugh out loud from hearing the sly humor of the voice-over. (Go ahead … call Cliff Bar at 1.800.CLIF.BAR.)

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FYI … Marcus details much of the nuances of voice branding in a book he has written titled, Voice Branding in America: How to Make Your Automated Voices Consistent with Your Brand.

Comments

[Kenny]

For anyone interested in calling Clif bar, the correct phone number is 1-800-CLIF-BAR (only 1 "f")

The voice of Clif is fantastic. Great blog.

[Evelyn]

Ya, press 1 for bla bla bla, press 2 for..... I can't stand that.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Doh! I removed the extra 'F.'

(Thanks Kenny.)

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Evelyn ... I too hate the PRESS OR SAY ONE yada, yada, yada phone game. I wish more businesses would find ways to humanize their business and less ways to mechanize their business.

I just called Southwest Airlines customer support line (214.792.4223) hoping to hear some spontaneity and personality in their automated voice system. I thought if they encourage their flight attendants to adlib and show some personality on their plane’s public address system then they might do the same with their automated voice system.

NOPE.

Southwest’s automated phone message does not convey the fun personality we’ve come to expect from the Southwest brand. Drats.

There is a TREMENDOUS opportunity for businesses to make the common uncommon by adding some personality to their automated voice systems.

[Jackie Huba]

The automated voicemail system for MINI Cooper (1-866-275-6464) is pretty good. I almost laughed out loud the first time I called it (we bought our MINI last December.)

A perky young guy's voice says "Greeting fellow motorer!" It's pretty standard fare from there, but at least the voice is not the standard almost robotic woman's voice we are used to hearing.

The greeting is perfectly in line with the car's mantra of "motoring", which is about the joy of driving. Our sales person at the MINI dealership was not called by that title, but instead she was our "Motoring Advisor." A few weeks after buying the car, we received a "Motoring Kit" -- a fun package that included travel bingo, a travel journal, pen, and signs to hold up to other drivers (my favorite one: "Put down that cell phone and enjoy the ride.")

The personality of the car and its marketing is about fun and the joy of driving, and they do a great job in conveying this in all of their communications, even on their voice system.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Yeah ... the MINI automated voice system is refreshing. The guy's voice is indeed friendly and casual with a hint of personal flair. Nice job by MINI to humanize the all-too-mechanized voice system.

What other brands have an affable automated voice system?

[Jack Armstrong]

It's great to see so much interest in this amazing disconnect from corportate brands. This is an issue I've been focusing my energy on for a number of years, and there is hope -- but change comes slowly. (You can find lots of food for thought about what turns out to be a more complex issue than you might imagine at www.frontendmessages.com.)

The biggest obstacle is that, within the company itself, there's no ownership of this point of contact with consumers. It clearly is a critically important part of the brand, and also the first step in the customer care experience, but almost inevitably the folks in those departments don't have a clue what the messages even say. (They never have to call and go through the same maze their consumers do.) This typically is considered to be a technology issue, so the responsibility ends up by default with IT.

The most effective way of approaching the problem is a collaborative effort among the departments most directly impacted by consumers' interactions with the automated phone system (which clearly can cause a direct hit on the bottom line). It takes a while, but it's definitely worth the effort.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Jack ... thanks for adding your voice to the conversation.

Your clients aside, what companies do you think are doing a good job with their 'brand voice' on automated phone systems?

[Jack Armstrong]

Good question. There aren't a lot that are remarkable, but the one people always seem to mention to me is Levi Strauss -- (800) USA- LEVI. Check it out.

Someone there clearly decided that consistency with the brand was important and had the guts to break way out of the box. And the fact that so many people respond favorably to it and tell others (when was the last time you found an automated phone greeting memorable in a positive way?) speaks volumes.

I was going to suggest that you listen to both the daytime and after-hours greetings, but I just called the number and the off-hours message has been changed dramatically from what was there before (which I thought was even better than the one during the day). Still better than average, but not extraordinary.