Voiceovers: An Organic Touch in an Age of Advancing Technology

Like every other industry, telephony faces an exciting time of technological change. Advances in machine learning, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, networking, and communications are altering the landscapes of social and business interaction all over the globe. Striving to develop ways we can interact with global customers faster and more efficiently is pushing us to incorporate more technology, and we’re constantly looking to leverage this technology to give us a greater edge in communications and corporate identity branding.

No other medium allows us a better opportunity to do this, to directly connect with clients and make a lasting impression, than the phone call. Advancing technology aims to make this basic interaction as automated as possible. Many of us have benefited greatly from these advances, seeing efficiency increases in our call centers and front offices. There is no downplaying the power of automation where it improves efficiency, both from a CFO’s perspective and that of your caller.

But trends across many media spectrums indicate a backswing toward more organic approaches, especially where hands-on or personal interactions are common. From resurgences in vinyl distribution, to the growing popularity of the “shelfie” hashtag across social media platforms, where users show off shelves of real paper and ink books, consumers are placing more value in “real things” in the face of a growing digital reality. Humans are a communal species- we crave real, social interactions beyond the screen. Immersed in second-by-second social media feeds, mobile content delivery, and with more processing power at our fingertips than all past generations combined, our trends are diametrically pointing to a desire to interact with things and people, more than screens and computers.

This is where the telephony industry sees itself at a crossroads. “Persona Development” is a trending topic among marketing managers tasked with developing an automated first-impression IVR system. Our response to callers seeking efficient, yet humanized systems has been to further develop the ability of our systems to reflect the carefully crafted persona our clients wish to portray. And the obvious first step to this is to ‘can’ the canned prompts. Where the value of authenticity is growing hand-in-hand with the value of efficiency, our opportunity lies in developing a product that represents the best of both approaches.

This is where companies like Digital Base can shine. Digital Base takes the authenticity of the voiceover product seriously by delivering pristine recordings across a multitude of languages, and providing dialect-accurate translations from diverse native speakers all over the globe. This is the cornerstone of persona development- building a networked system of prompts designed specifically for real callers to interact with, and making sure those prompts are effective communicators, and that they work with your IVR infrastructure.

Of course, persona development is just one piece of the puzzle. Across the industry, budgets and turnarounds continue to get tighter and tighter. The sweeping changes that innovation and automation have brought to the market mean solutions can and must be cheaper and quicker to produce. This is where lighter, nimbler providers can be a budget-saving asset to your project. Remember- authenticity AND efficiency.

Once again, Digital Base carves this very niche in the market by fulfilling a global need for natural recordings and authentic translations, at breakneck turnaround and commonly on or under budget requirements. Digital Base is known worldwide for taking a ‘flexibility-first’ approach. This just means that the time-sensitivity of your project, the individual nature of your goals, and the unique narrative that your company or client is trying to portray are the first orders of business, always- and have been for almost 30 years!

Digital Base is a leader in the industry- not just because of the indisputable quality of the delivered product, or because of the dedication to authenticity and the respect for technological advances that make it possible, but primarily because Digital Base is committed to making sure our technology moves at the speed of your business. Authentic, fast and flexible are the selling points at Digital Base, which means in a time where the consumer pendulum is swinging back to more valued humanized interactions, while the corporate approach still values technology, efficiency and quality, you benefit most from using a studio that is experienced in providing both.

To find out more about how Digital Base can uniquely accomplish these and more goals related to your IVR project, visit us at www.digitalbase.com. Find Digital Base on the AppFoundry marketplace for PureConnect and PureEngage platforms.

This blog was co-authored by Kevin Bryan. Kevin has been providing multicultural corporate persona and voiceover solutions for the telephony industry for almost 30 years. Tracking trends and fine tuning product to suit changing needs is his expertise, and a willingness to get a job done with finesse and urgency is a long-standing commitment that has benefitted clients all over the globe.

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