We Really Are Happy to Serve You…
I had the good fortune to be able to persuade Emily Yellin, internationally-recognized customer service expert, to agree to be interviewed for this blog. I loved her keynote address at SpeechTEK two years ago, and devoured her best-selling book, Your Call is (Not That) Important To Us. In addition to being an author and in-demand [...]
“Hello, Room Service? Can I Order a Monte Cristo Sandwich and a Side Order of Acoustical Foam…?”
Harlan Hogan is a well-known voice actor and a published author of many books about building and recording from a home studio. A must-read for any home-based talent is his book The Voice Actor’s Guide to Recording at Home …and On the Road. Hogan is a pioneer of the idea of the “portability” of recording [...]
Location, Location, Location!
Realtors have long understood the importance of accurately and engagingly describing properties to prospective buyers. Written copy describing the features of properties range from point-form, almost “hostage-letter”-style writing, to emotion-filled, detailed, and flowery listings that border on prose. The goal, always, is to captivate and tantalize buyers, making them add the property to their “must-see” lists. [...]
Where Have All the Operators Gone?
It’s all my fault. Well, actually, as easy as it is to strike guilt with me, it’s not all my fault. The obsolescence of the telephone operator is as a result of ever-emerging technologies that were already spinning well out of control by the time I came on board as a well-known voice of automated telephone [...]
Prompts That Haunt Me
I usually do things in a largely regret-free manner. I’ve gotten pretty expert at sizing up a potential voice project and assessing what its impact might be further down the road. There are distinct lines I won’t cross: gratuitous profanity, overdone eroticism, or overt racism. These give me pretty clear signals that I should probably respectfully recuse [...]
Phone Phobia
It’s not technically a phobia. It’s actually more of a preference, but despite the fact that voicing telephone systems is my bread and butter, I can’t actually stand talking on the phone. Is that odd? I’ve always been like that. I come from a family where we talk with brevity, stating our piece and then [...]
Why Get a Pro to Do It?
The economy’s doing better. You’re a start-up, but you’re great about staying within budget, prospects look good, and all things are on track. You realize that there’s an outlay of cash required to get your “framework” set up properly—there’s hiring, office space procurement, and getting a Web site up and running (and making sure it [...]
