I read an article recently that confirmed my suspicions that most people don’t remember what you present to them in a sales call one week after you meet them. In fact we have so much stuff being ‘presented’ to us each day that it is difficult to make sense of the clutter. So how is this related to writing a script for the telephone?
Well the trick is really about connecting with your caller and keeping the message simple – yes you read heard me, simple.
Typically when we are reviewing a script for the telephone you will hear us read it out loud and test the inflections and information flow – as the caller would hear it. Think we are nuts? Well actually we are!
But when you are writing for the spoken word you need to write how people would generally communicate with each other – how people talk.
Here are some things you can do to make your scripts more natural:
The most important thing is the tone. A more casual tone will make your messages sound conversational. You want your callers to feel like they’re listening to a person – someone they can relate to, not just a recorded robot.
Now how do you achieve that tone? Obviously some of it comes down to the Voice Talent and how they read out your script, but we’re talking about the words, so here are some things we do when writing scripts to make it sound more conversational before the Voice Talent even sees it.
Choice of Words: Choose words that are more casual, simple and easy to understand. A good rule of thumb is that if you have to get the dictionary out or ask what you mean by a certain expression or sentence, then you need to simplify your message. Also avoid using industry jargon – this should go without saying but too many times you fall into the trap of being too close to the subject matter and ‘assume’ your customers will get it.
Ask Questions: Communication is about two-way engagement. In real life we tend to use questions a lot in our conversations. Questions make people think and reflect on their response – making them feel engaged.
Use First Person Language: Referring to your company as a “third party” puts distance between you and the caller. Instead use words like ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘you’ to make the caller feel like they are being engaged in conversation with a person.
Use short sentences: When we speak we take natural pauses in our conversations – we need to breath right? Well similarly for the spoken script we need to write it as people say it – not how they read it! Sound confusing? Well nobody said it was easy
Use Contractions: Contractions means to make things shorter. When we speak we don’t usually say ‘do not’, unless we want to be formal or emphasise a point.
Use positive language: This requires that you turn expressions around and focus on the positive aspects as opposed to the negative. For example don’t say ‘our network will be down due to planned maintenance’ instead say ‘ as we work to enhance our network you may /will experience some service disruption ‘.
So next time you are reviewing a telephone script put yourself in the callers shoes – are you using the right expressions? Are you engaging with your callers?
So…ready to get started? Talk to us…
