Having a bad day at work and tempted to tell callers exactly what’s on your mind? For many people, indulging in a spot of under-the-breath mumbling is enough to relieve tension, but for one school in Australia, their infuriation at pupil absences and lack of parental support was eloquently spat all over their answering machine. In fact, a whole auto attendant message was dedicated to making their feelings very clear! 
Auto attendant messaging that packs a punch
Business Voicemail – getting it right
Business Voicemail is all part of the audio branding experience. It’s sometimes the first contact you’ll make with a customer, so it’s crucial you make the right impression every time.
Here at PH Audio, we’re passionate about getting it right for our customers, so we’ve put together a few tips on how to make the most of your Business Voicemail package.
Why time on hold is the right time for audio branding
Companies spend a lot on symbols. On symbols that people associate with their name.
It’s kind of reductive, but in the simplest terms, advertising is about making an effective symbol that carries a full brand message. That’s why the Nike ‘Swoosh’ logo equals athletics. Equals running. Equals gold medals. Equals you running faster.
Advertising is about making a large concept into a picture. Reducing sentences and paragraphs into lines and squiggles.
It’s been about that for hundreds of years. About graphic identities carrying brands.
Now, of course, we’re producing much more than logos. We’ve got the internet, for one – we’ve got the viral videos and the microsites; the discussions across social media and becoming a company’s fan on Facebook. Now, businesses are creating fully branded ‘user experiences’.
But in the last century, we also got ways to produce better sounds, and faster. We have studios and microphones. And as this medium has grown and gone digital, so too have the agencies (we’re one!) who specialise almost exclusively in audio branding – not graphic-based branding. And on commercial radio, telly, the internet, businesses are using these agencies to compete for the most memorable sound.
Getting the most from Web Audio
We’ve spoken before about the ways web audio adds more to your website.
For the most part, web audio works as a promotional tool; grabbing attention and anchoring the user’s interest. You might use it to introduce your business. You might use it to highlight your main products or services in a short burst of information; a summary of what you’re about. You might even use it as another way to say hello.
But more than an effective promotional tool, web audio can be functional, too – a way to direct your visitors to pages and, in turn, to the offers you really want them to see.
Demystifying Google Wave
What would email look like if it was invented today?
That’s what Google asked themselves and Google Wave is their answer. Their point is that email has been around for forty years, and even though it’s still the primary form of electronic communication today, it’s certainly not the only one. So, they set about creating a way to merge the best of email, social networking and instant messaging to create a super communication tool, namely Wave.
Wave is still a prototype. It’s currently available by invitation only so its usage is limited to a lucky few until all the bugs have been ironed out. Google Wave is perhaps most well known for being at best baffling, and at worst, completely unfathomable. We’re not one of the lucky Wave account holders at PH Audio Blog, but we’re taking on the challenge of demystifying the Wave using that fine resource – t’internet.
On-hold messaging with bite | A note from the MD
Looking back and looking forward to OHM
It doesn’t feel like 13 years ago that we produced and installed our first production – time flies.
Quarter of a million productions later and every aspect of our service bears little resemblance to the processes I’d dug out of the ground back then. Voicing, music, installation, playback equipment and service levels are in a different stratosphere to those bygone days.
But that’s business for you – necessity is the mother – and these advances mean we’ve consistently evolved and improved. What was quite good then is quite brilliant today, which leads me nicely on to the aspect I think has changed the least noticeably but most significantly. That is: what the messages say or, as we say in the trade, the scripts.
Audio Copywriting | Part I: Keep it Simple
Picture credit: sooperkuh @ flickr
Writing for voiceovers
Something we wrestle with on the PH Media copywriting team is how things are said. Not so much pronounced – although the odd company name might throw us – but written to be said. We write scripts for our professional voiceovers to read aloud, which means thinking about more than the rhythm of speech and the balance of a sentence.
And, because the difference between what’s on paper and what’s spoken can often be larger than we realise, we know a few things about what works – and what doesn’t.
America Says Goodbye to Robocalls
Photo: alexkerhead
“Call quietly or there will be… trouble.”
On the 1st of September 2009, the Federal Trade Commission of America banned automated sales calls.
An amendment to their Telemarket Sales Rules requires telemarketers to obtain written permission from American consumers to receive Robocalls.
If you’ve ever received a Fonejacker-style cold-call claiming you have won a holiday on a cruise ship, you’re probably received a Robocall at home before.
Don’t worry though, this form of direct marketing is already illegal in the UK if the calls are made without the implicit consent of consumers.
What are your thoughts on this use of audio technology?
Are Robocalls ever welcome?
- Intrusive Marketing - No thanks! (80%, 12 Votes)
- Clever Technology - I don't mind them! (13%, 2 Votes)
- Never received an automated sales call (7%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 15
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At PH Audio, we’re pleased to welcome scores of new clients to our service every day, three key companies who have recently joined us include: Ladbrokes, Village Hotels and Korg Musical Instruments.