Self-service has a voice. And sometimes it's Allison Smith's.
Smith is used to people recognizing her voice, even if they can’t remember where they heard it. A highly sought after voice actress, she charges $200 an hour to record announcements and prompts for companies such as Marriot Hotels, Toyota, Victoria’s Secret and Bank of America. Subscribers to the Cingular Wireless network might recognize her as the warm, friendly operator telling them their calls can’t go through, and Circuit City customers may soon hear her recorded voice asking them to rate the efficiency of store cashiers on automated customer service surveys.
But in recent years, Smith says voice professionals have found a new base of clients asking for their talents: deployers of self-service solutions.
"I’m hoping to increase exposure and raise people's awareness of hiring a professional voice talent to do the prompts for their kiosk," said Smith, who recently posted a listing in the classified section of SelfService.org, advertising her services.
Kiosk: Vocal or mute?
It’s a decision every deployer must face: Should their self-service solution have audible voice prompts?
Manufacturers and deployers tend to agree that, in most cases, voice prompts can add a dimension of user friendliness and interactivity to the self-service experience. Such is the case with NCR Corp.'s popular FastLane retail self-checkout solution.
"NCR's extensive usability testing and in-store analysis show that people have different learning styles," said Marcia B. Crosland, a global-human-factors engineering management consultant for NCR. "Some people learn by listening to instructions and some people learn by viewing (reading). Our research shows that nine out of 10 people listen to instructions more effectively than by reading."
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Professional voice actress Allison Smith has made a name for herself by providing narration for - among other things - self-service kiosks. |
But experts caution that the decision to give voice to a kiosk isn’t always a no-brainer. According to Doug Peter, president of St. Clair Interactive Communications, kiosks in quiet areas like hospitals and luxury stores should probably be mute. Even in busier retail locations where voice can be a good fit, like Wal-Mart or the mall, "chatterbox" kiosks that spout off too many prompts can annoy the customer.
"If you try to voice every screen, you'll drive people crazy," Peter said. "But for a few key elements, voice can be helpful."
Finding the voice
Once the deployer has decided to include voice prompts in their self-service solution, they have to choose a voice. Deployers can groom an established voice from within their company or look externally to experienced voice professionals.
Peter says clients with an established voice – such as one that voices the company’s television or radio commercials – should probably use the same voice for their self-service project, with the advantage that the company’s brand is preserved and reinforced. But he cautions the spokesperson should have some professional voice talent experience.
"We believe in pro-level recording," he said. "The studio costs money, so if your amateur is fumbling around, you can waste studio time as opposed to paying the pro their talent fee."
Options for voices are limitless. Deployers can choose from voices of various ages, ethnicities and nationalities.
Peter says the accent (or lack thereof) can be an important consideration.
"If it’s a regional chain, you want someone who echoes the region," he said. "If it’s national, you don’t want a New York accent or anything that is too distinctive by region."
Even the tone of voice can be critical.
Smith, who has a degree in drama from the University of Calgary, says she often draws on her arts training to deliver the performance required. But sometimes it’s all a matter of trial and error – as she once discovered while narrating prompts for a Kodak kiosk.
"Apparently, I read it in kind of a seductive, sultry tone," she said.
The result, she said, was that men were using the kiosk in record numbers, while some female consumers seemed offended by the tone and would stop using the kiosk in the middle of the process. When she re-recorded the prompts, the situation improved.
"I had to pretty much redo it in more of a straightforward, businesslike tone, which was more appropriate for the kiosk, for sure," she said.
Some companies are tight-lipped about their criteria for choosing a kiosk voice. Representatives from NCR declined to comment on the basis for their choice for a voice prompt narrator for the FastLane self-checkout system, calling it "proprietary information."
A catalog of voices
Chris Porter, senior producer and voice talent for Procomm Studio Services, says his production company specializes in matching the right voice with the right application. A female voice may work well for a customer-service kiosk, he says, while consumers in a hardware store may respond better to a product information kiosk narrated by a deep male voice.
"We’ve done everything from providing a pirate voice for a casino kiosk with a 'treasure hunt' pirate theme to just doing straight-up product demos with pleasant voices that make them easier to approach," Porter said. "It’s basically about providing an approachable persona."
Procomm’s site features a catalog of various voices, all categorized with descriptive tags like "Conversational Real People," "Young Adults," "African American," "Children and Teens" and "Spanish." A special section for character voices includes some of the studio’s more outrageous talents, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonators and voices of cartoon characters.
The most important thing to consider, says Peter, is that the voice encourages the customer to become engaged with the self-service device.
"I'd want it to have a nice, friendly voice that portrays it as a coach rather than a dictator," he said. "A know-it-all voice is bad news."
All in the script
Once the voice talent is chosen, it's critical for the deployer to have a well-crafted script of what the talent will say. Porter says these scripts usually are written by the deployer or by an ad agency, and the number of prompts in a script usually varies by the sophistication of the kiosk.
"It could be as short as one or two," he said. "Maybe it’s just that a welcome message and a few short prompts could direct the person to where they’re going to get the information they're looking for, or it could be from 10 to 100 prompts, if it’s real in-depth and they’re walking the person through every step of the process."
Smith says she doesn’t mind making a script suggestion here or there, if the client is asking for help.
"I'll usually let them know if there's a prompt that's reading a bit awkwardly or if something needs to be reworded," she said. "And most people are very, very open to my input, but for the most part I like to leave that aspect up to the client because they ultimately know best what they want to achieve and what they want to say."
Peter says the deployer can expect to pay both a talent fee and a studio fee when the prompts are recorded (unless the talent has their own studio, in which he says the fees are combined). When installing the voice prompts into the self-service solution, he says it helps to put them on a time delay so that users who already know how to use the system can choose the next option before an annoying voice prods them.
"If somebody knows exactly what they’re doing, they don’t need the voice," he said. "They can just charge ahead. But some people might need a little encouragement to swipe their credit card."
The hazards of the job
Every occupation has its hazards and Smith says the voice professional is no exception. She says she has to protect her vocal cords, particularly when she catches a cold.
"That's like my worst fear, because that definitely affects my sound and almost makes me unable to work if I sound too congested," she said.
"I don't try to shout too much, I guess," Porter said. "But there is, of course, common sense stuff like trying to avoid smoking and things like that that can do damage to your voice."
Then there’s the other danger: running into your own voice when you least expect it, such as when Smith recently received an automated phone call from eBay. She says she was exasperated – and a little annoyed – to hear her herself on the other end, telling her she had just been outbid on a handbag she wanted.
"So yeah, it is strange when I pick up the phone and it’s me talking to me," she said. "Yeah. Very, very strange."
