When was the last time you placed a phone call to a company and said, “Dang! That was a terrific greeting!” You will when you dial our number! That first impression counts.

You may not recognize the name Jane Barbe, but if you’re over the age of 35 like me, you’ll recognize her voice.  She was the “Time Lady,” the woman who recorded the first telephone recordings for the Bell System. The voice who told you that the number had been disconnected, or that you needed to hang up and try again.

If you’ve ever tried to record a message for your company’s voice mail recording, you know how hard it is to get it right. Male or female voice? Warm and friendly or dignified and distant? How fast should you speak? How lengthy should the message be?

You know how critical first impressions are on your website and other online networks. But people do still make telephone calls. And the voice that greets them and directs their calls plants an image in their minds and reveals something about your corporate culture. You need to make sure that it’s conveying the right message.

Why Trivial Things Count

As our company’s CEO, I didn’t want to use my voice for the Bella Web Design voice mail greeting even though I am a former opera singer (bet you didn’t know that). What if callers recognized my voice? Pretty small time, I thought.

I wanted a professional, someone who was an expert at striking the right chord with customers and prospects. A voice connected to a person who could translate the impression I wanted to give (caring, compassionate and friendly) into the perfect tone, inflection and personality.

Eric Funk was able to do just that. Besides being able to personify the image  I wanted to project, he did everything else right. He was accessible. I reached him at his studio in Whitefish, MT and he made a recording that same day. He even made a requested modification over the weekend. His price was reasonable, and his credits – clients like AT&T, Acura and Hobie — were amazing. I’m honored to be working with someone of his caliber and we’ll continue to use him for our presentations and web voiceovers in the future. I’ve already connected him to one of our biggest clients.

Be Real

Wouldn’t you like to have a voice like this on your telephone recording? That voice is our company for a brief period, many times every day. That friendly recording is never cranky. It never has a cold or a bad day. And it never disconnects you out of spite.

So what’s Funk’s secret? “I think the most important thing to remember is that people like to be talked to, not talked at,” he says. “You may be selling your company to millions, but the goal is to have every one of those people thinking you’re just talking to them.”

It’s the difference between saying, “How are you all doing out there?,” and, “Hi, how are YOU?”

So don’t risk losing prospects before you’ve even had a chance to converse with them. You’ll find value in hiring a professional voiceover actor who can take your company’s first impression to the next level even before you pick up the phone and say “hello!”