In the last few weeks, we have discussed the importance of using both professional voice talents and professional translators when creating voice recordings for your IVR and AA systems. Once you have established trust with a vendor for whenever you need a voice translation and a voice message, you can relax knowing that the process will move quickly and efficiently without needing to consume any more of your time. But there are steps that you can while prepping a script for IVR or AA before sending it to the vendor, steps that will make sure that this process is as quick and efficient as possible.
When creating a voice recording for a global audience, you would be wise to know and specify in the script the exact dialect/region that you are needing for your project. For example: Say that you need some recordings in Spanish. There are two very common forms of Spanish. “Latin American Spanish” which is the dominant form in North and South America, and “Castilian” (or “European”) Spanish, which is the dominant form used in Spain and other European nations. While the different forms of Spanish share commonalities, there are also numerous differences in both wording and grammar that will render a message in one version confused and incoherent to an audience expecting the other.
There are other variants of Spanish that are even more country-specific, like Chilean Spanish. A professional vendor can and will provide voice translations and recordings in Spanish for whatever variant you need, but the customer must know what they require before sending in the request.
This is true of numerous languages throughout the globe. There are distinct versions of French spoke in Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland, differing versions of German pronounced in Germany, Bavaria, and Austria, and in China and other Asian nations you must contend with Cantonese and Mandarin, along with regional versions of both languages, like the specific version of Mandarin spoken in Taiwan.
Beyond making the IVR prompts or AA messages as clear as possible for your customers and users, taking the time to get these specifics right also conveys to your customers and users that you care about and respect them, and are willing to go the extra mile to make sure that their needs are seen to.
A good way to stay specific when prepping a script for IVR or AA is to stay organized. Scripts for IVR prompts and Auto Attendant prompts should be assembled in Excel, using a standardized script format. Divide the Excel doc into sections for each language required. This approach maximizes the chances of highly accurate output throughout the translating, recording, editing, and formatting processes by unifying and streamlining the communication and distribution processes across multiple voice talents.
Any instructions relating to pronunciation, special treatment for certain prompts, phone programming notes, and other information along those lines should be separated from the text that will actually be translated and recorded. Keeping these special instructions separate prevents confusion for the various people involved in the recording and editing of the audio itself. It is also wise to name each voice prompt with a unique, identifiable, and easily searchable file name. This helps to ensure easy and accurate identification during and after the production process.
Follow this link to request our Script Preparation Check List, so you can make sure your script is fully prepared when you send it in for recording.