Greeting, call menu, voicemail: Record it yourself or pay for a voice over?
With your 085 number or your fixed regional number (such as 020 or 010 number) you radiate more professionalism than with your 06 number. But, you want to appear even more professional. So what do you do?
Exactly: you go for professional voice-over! But, do you record them yourself? Or do you have a professional voice artist do it for you?
We take you through the pros and cons (and why you need voiceovers for your business)! ↓
Why you need sound clips for your landline phone number
By voiceover, we mean your greeting, business voicemail and the part of your call menu where someone tells you which button to press to get to customer service or workshop. You can either record these yourself or have them recorded by a professional voice artist.
With a menu, you always need an audio clip: otherwise your callers won't know which button to press (or whether they are in a menu at all).
But, do you really want to go that extra mile for your customers? Show that your company really is a professional business? Then you also need a custom greeting and a business voicemail.
This will increase the professionalism of your company: you will immediately look bigger and more serious and you will address your callers professionally from second 1. Even if you haven't even recorded yet!
Audio clips for your callers are also extremely useful for indicating when you are closed, have special opening hours or want to make another important announcement to your callers.
In other words, sound clips are an easy and low-threshold way to speak to and inform your customers professionally.
TIP: Do you already have a Rinkel subscription and do people get to hear your personal voicemail? Then read our article to prevent your caller from hearing your mobile voicemail.
Having a professional voice artist record your voice-over
You have two choices: you have a professional voice artist record your voice-over, or you record it yourself. (OK - actually three choices: you don't have to use sound clips, of course).
We take you through the pros and cons of having a professional do the work (like Eva Zeijlstra, and Wendy Duivenvoorde, among others)!
Advantages of a professional voice-over
- Recorded in a professional studio: guaranteed best sound quality
- You cannot speak to your customers in a more professional way!
- The pronunciation is always correct: there is no mumbling or unintelligible words
- You get the audio files yourself: you can use them elsewhere and they are always yours!
- Decide down to the letter what needs to be said and in what tone (busy, energetic or calm, for example)
Disadvantages of a professional voice-over
- Having a professional voice-over record your texts costs extra money
- Waiting time: it takes a few days before your voice-overs are available
Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages for you? Pick your favourite voice over voice!
Record your own messages yourself
Option two: Record your audio clips yourself. As with having them professionally recorded, there are pros and cons to this. We'll go through them with you!
Advantages of recording your own voiceovers
- Audio clips available immediately after recording
- Easily re-record if you are not satisfied, misspoke or want to change a detail
- Easily record a new message if you are on holiday or want to record a special temporary message
Disadvantages of recording your own voice-overs
- Difference in quality due to wind, noise and echo, for example
- Sounds less professional than if you have it done by a professional voice artist
Bonus: tips for recording your own sound clips
Recording your own sound clips? We give you some tips to make your own sound clips sound professional.
- Make sure you are indoors, in a room without noise (such as beeps, a hoover in the background)
- Make sure you do not hear echoes in the room
- Hold your phone (or microphone) at a normal distance from your mouth. This is how you sound most normal
- Make sure it is immediately clear that it is a sound clip and that they are not talking to you yet: this way you avoid confusion
- Speak more slowly than usual and make sure you articulate well
- Write down what you want to say in advance: reading it down is easier than doing it all by heart.
- Keep it short and to the point: no more than 150 words.
The most important thing is to make sure your customers understand you well and get what you mean.
Need inspiration? Go through our sample texts.
So, what did you choose after reading this blog?
to voice-overs
