CHAPTER 23

YOUR PHONE VOICE

Few people are aware of how much the telephone changes vocal quality. Even with fiber optic cable, telephones distort the tones and shadings that give your voice “personality.” In fact, speech consultant Ralph Proodian contends that a Caruso vintage 78 rpm record provides better tonal quality than a standard telephone!

Telephone distortion may create a simple annoyance—such as giving your voice a nasal tone—or it may totally change the meaning of your message—by making you sound threatening when you mean to sound committed, or condescending when you mean to sound concerned. It isn’t hard to understand, then, why becoming aware of and working to improve your telephone voice is so important. In this chapter, we’ll examine your voice and how the telephone changes it. Chapter 24 offers specific tips for your own personal voice improvement program.

Your voice is created by a combination of your breath control (this gives your voice its power), tone (created as the air moves from your lungs through your larynx), and your pronunciation (how you form particular sounds with your “articulators,” e.g., mouth, teeth, lips, and lower jaw).

BREATH CONTROL

Proper breath control is a function of proper posture, good health, and good habits. Your lungs and diaphragm can’t work effectively if you are slumped at your desk, so make a habit of sitting up straight when you talk on the telephone. And the better your physical condition, the better your lung capacity. On the telephone, that translates into being able to speak without the soft, breathy quality that may be misunderstood.

TONE

Your emotional state will modify your pitch range, whether you intend it to or not. When you are stressed or angry or excited or surprised or, whatever, it will come through in your voice. And you can bet that your customer will pay more attention to this subverbal message than to the actual words that you use. You can manage this effect through concentration and practice, but you cannot eliminate it.

PRONUNCIATION

The way you use your articulators will not only form the words you use but also your own individual speech patterns. The pronunciation and intonation patterns you use are learned and reflect the region of the country where you grew up, your social group, and perhaps even your ethnic heritage.

There are no intrinsically right or wrong speech patterns. However, be aware of your own accent and vocal patterns and consider whether or not they serve you well at work. A regional accent may make you more accepted with a particular areas of the country, but as the telephone lines bring you closer to distant customers, does that same accent interfere with clear communication? A good friend from Northern Minnesota once had to “hand off” a customer call—the customer, from Georgia, couldn’t understand a word she said.

Your telephone voice reveals your personality. It is the number one way that the customer on the other end of the line gets to know you as an individual. Five qualities combine to make your telephone voice your own.

Five Qualities of a Good Telephone Voice

1. Alertness. Your voice should have spark and energy. Give the customer the impression that you are wide-awake and alert—and anxious to help.
2. Pleasantness. Your voice should be smooth, not jarring or whiney. Communicate with your voice that you are a pleasant and happy person. There is no room for shortness or anger.
3. Conversational tone. You are a real human being talking with (not at) another real human being. Even when using a script or job aid, work hard to keep your tone conversational and your language simple and straightforward.
4. Distinctness. Use clear articulation and enunciation. All of us tend to get lazy in our face-to-face speech—we drop the final consonant or breeze through that middle syllable. The telephone exaggerates this tendency, so open your mouth and let the sound come out clearly.
5. Expressiveness. Vary your tone and rate. Build a verbal picture with your voice.