Many times, when I’ve called into a larger company and encounter a call center agent, I often get the distinct impression that they are gatekeepers. Protectors of the company. The velvet rope that keeps the customer on *their* side of the transaction, the intermediary between the caller and the reward. It’s very much an “us and them” situation. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that call center agents are important ambassadors of the company. They are the front line of the company’s customer-facing telephony transactions, and they have a massive responsibility to represent the company favorably. Caller’s impressions often are made (or broken) on these interactions between agent and the customer, and it’s crucial to get it right. One bad interaction with a call center agent, and the customer will be looking to your competitors to spend their money. From the hiring of agents to the training and monitoring, measures must be taken to ensure that the most genuine, responsive, empathetic, and innovative people are put in those agent’s chairs. They need to be able to know – and stick to – the parameters of what they’re allowed to authorize (and what they’re not) – and also listen accurately to the customer and go off the script when the moment calls for it. But it’s a little more granular than that: agents should keep a truism in their mind at all times: the person on the other end of the phone line is why you have a job. Yes, you are hired by the company, and you are there to handle the front line of the customer experience on behalf of the company. But in a nutshell: never forget: You are there for the customer. They are calling in because they have transacted with the company, and they have an issue/concern/problem they need a solution to. Your job is not to say no. It’s actually to say yes.  You may be under a great deal of pressure from the company to maintain the bottom line, keep costs down, and to not be freewheeling with resources, refunds, or exchanges. But without customers, there are no resources. Many call center agents have lost sight of that all-important customer/company dynamic, and it needs to be revisited. I have some suggestions to bring you back to that ideal of a truly responsive call center agent. This is a rare opportunity. I’ve said it before in this blog space: the caller has already been to your website and have either not found a solution to their issue, or their issue is so unique or problematic, it didn’t show up in your FAQs or your pre-programmed chatbot. When a caller calls in, it’s a rare opportunity to take that sticky situation and make it the starting point of a rebuilt or restored relationship. It’s a massive golden opportunity that should be taken seriously and handled carefully. Customers are not the enemy. Your company doesn’t want that customer to disappear. They want you to do whatever is reasonable to make sure that they’re a happy, repeat customer. Within judicious parameters, the company is prepared to make any trouble situation right. The customer is not an obstacle to your success, and they are not the enemy, Maintain their business at all costs. We all know the truism about how much money it actually costs to win back a customer, as opposed to keeping a customer. Nothing’s changed, and it’s still true. Every effort should be made (within reason) to make sure they stay customers (and tell others – verbally or online – whether or not other people should give the company their business.) A smooth call center interaction ensures that the current customer stays a customer, and in our review-based commerce society, that others should be encouraged to be customers as well. So often – when I’ve engaged with a call center agent – I feel like just another call they need to get through; there seems to be a genuine lack of interest in trouble-shooting the caller’s problem, and I’m read to from a script with a prescribed “solution”. It’s important to call center agents are empowered to make decisions on their own, use their instincts to address the problem off-script, and to never forget that you are there for the customer.

I always ask for a show of hands in my workshops of who enjoys their voice in their outgoing voicemail message. Absolutely nobody raises their hand. They all ask me why they sound different in recordings than they think they do. The explanation is actually fairly un-glamorous: you hear your voice cushioned and muffled through a series of bone and muscle, and *also* you are hearing that sound in your head, simultaneously with the sound coming through your mouth and to your ears. That extra muffling makes your voice sound lower than it actually is (“I sound like Minnie Mouse in recordings!” No, you don’t. That’s what we’re hearing too.) For someone like myself – who voices every day and edits those sound files – I have developed a certain “detachment” towards my voice. I know a good take from a bad one; I can clinically listen to my sound files and determine when things are sounding “normal” and when things have gone off the rails (much like a dancer who can look at themselves in a mirror and see good alignment and alignment that needs adjusting.) We, as voice talent, need to be able to have an objective listen to the sound files we create and double-check as to whether they are executing the writer’s wishes, whether or not we are delivering the message that was intended, and if we are honoring the material. All that requires a certain detachment to these sounds; they’re merely a product we make, and we can clinically observe what we’re doing and modify as needed without attachment or investment. It's important that voice talent at the mic ask themselves three basic questions before hitting “send” on those sound files – either as an audition, or as a finished piece of work. Who is this for? It’s critical to know just *who* this project is pointed at, and who it’s for. Is this for industry insiders who know all the terminology and nomenclature, or for the lay public who might require a more detailed, slower ease-in into the topic? I’ve voiced projects for a large auto parts distributor; they had me voicing staff e-learning training modules, and also informational public-facing videos for their customers. Very different treatment of the material, from the writing to the style in which I voiced it. Knowing your audience is crucial. What is this about? This one seems painfully obvious, but if you really listen to TV and radio commercials, you’ll hear lots of voice talent who are just reading words. Just getting the words out correctly. Saying the words in the prescribed time parameters(very important for broadcast spots). Without really thinking about what they’re saying, or even what the words mean. Before you voice something (anything) read the copy. Several times. Put the copy away and paraphrase in your own words what the content is about. And make a decision – on the fly; not marking your script – which words need emphasis (because that’s what we do naturally in speech.) The comprehension of the material seems axiomatic, but all you need to do is listen to locally-produced commercials or YouTube videos to hear people just saying words. Making sounds. Without thinking about them.  Does this take fit the brief? You may think you’ve done a technically strong take; you may like the way you sound in that take – but is it fitting the brief of the instructions/specs? Is it honoring the words? And does it fit into the client’s vision or intention? All these things are more important than how you aesthetically sound. If the client’s intention is not apparent through the description on the audition sides or the job brief, start a conversation with the client and ask some essential questions about the overall message of the piece and how your anticipated contribution fits in. It takes a clinical ear – and a step-back from yourself – to honestly listen with an objective ear – and be able to assess where you’re at. That objectivity is the difference between a pro who genuinely enjoys being the ambassador of the client’s message, and one who merely enjoys time at the mic.