You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
In my work as a full-time voiceover talent, I record in many different genres: eLearning, explainer videos, commercials and…yes…Telephony.
To many voiceover talent, it’s not even on their radar or, honestly, it’s looked down upon as not worth their time.
For those not in my industry many know this as “voicemail jail.” Which is really sad.
What many don’t realize is how important it is for companies to have a professional sounding phone system.
It truly is often the first impression that people get of a company.
(How many rants have we all heard about the awful system and sound someone had to deal with when they called a certain company)
I just got off a session for a major luxury brand. There were two people on the line from the agency and client side, plus the engineer.
(For my VO friends: Yes, this was a Union booking via one of my agents, Desanti Talents recorded via ISDN)
We spent 40 minutes recording 3 paragraphs for their phone system.
These people get it. They understand that the people who call their company expect a certain sound and a certain quality. It’s also a sign of respect for the customer. Their customers don’t want to hear someone who’s just “phoning it in” (pun intended!)
I was thrilled to be hired to represent them.
So, the next time you hear a bad recording, what will you think of the company? Will you feel respected?
If, on the other hand, you hear a good recording, you’ll know that the company cares about their image, and you their customer.
When I became a full time voice talent (or actor, or “-over” or artist, or faffer…whatever you want to call it these days! ;-), one of the statements that I heard over & over again was “Oh forget it, it’s always the same 10 people that get booked for those jobs.”
In today’s day and age of social network-meetup-hi-look-at-me-ing you never really know who’s out there peeking in your website-blog-twitter-facebook-window.
When you’re a voice talent, as you progress in your chosen profession, you will probably find yourself doing more of one type of work than another:
Those of us that are full-time voice talent do a lot of different types of work. TV and radio commercials, E-learning, and a lot of Message on hold and Interactive voice response work.
I’ve said it before in this blog, but I’ll say it again, there really is no competition in VO. Either you’re right for as gig, or your not. And I love that.
A while back I got a call from a potential new client. It was a very pleasant call, asking about my rates and availability. And then, as is often the case in IVR/MOH work they asked how long I’d been doing this work, and basically whether I planned on being around to complete any updates they may requires months, or years down the line. I told them that this is what I do.
I love Tennis. And it has been a family tradition for the past 25+ years to watch the Men’s Finals at Wimbledon every year.