Human contact with a human voice

I caught an interesting phone in on Radio 2 a few weeks ago. The entrepreneur Karen Darby, who founded youswitch, was answering questions from exasperated parents, who could see their school or university leaving off spring weren't able to get jobs.

Karen Darby was brilliant. In fact I've seen her speak live and she's very funny: intelligent: humble - and talks a lot of sense. She also has children of a similar age.

She recognised that there is a shortage of jobs: particularly for this age group; what it does to self esteem and for carefully planned out career dreams. But she's lived through recessions and survived, and was able to reassure listeners that this isn't a permanent situation. However, she did have some good advice for job seekers. One stuck in my mind: the human voice. She said that this is the most powerful tool we have to communicating with others when searching for opportunities. Many people send off speculative emails: tweets: letters, but actually picking up the phone - which I know can be scary, sets you apart from others. Not just because it's more scary and takes more effort, but because there is real human contact and the person you are calling is able to engage with you more easily.

She actually suggested calling people or companies that were of interest and asking if it was possible to come in: observe and find out about the job. She cited examples of young people doing this. Although there was no work - and they hadn't asked for a job, because they'd taken an interest; developed a relationship - and kept in touch, they were contacted when an opportunity became available.

She also has people that have contacted her: asking her about the job and company: can I come in etc. She doesn't respond to the emails: text messages or letters, BUT does when the person calls.

Of course everyone is different, but in a world where it is easy to 'round robin' your CV to hundreds of email addresses with the push of a button, it is interesting to hear what a successful entrepreneur is saying about the voice.

So: my message is - pick up the phone as well as send those CVs and speculative emails out. And Good Luck!

For more information go to http://www.executivevoice.co.uk

Losing the human voice through texting

Yesterday I heard a news item on BBC news related to a company that specialises in converting voice mail messages to text messages. Apparently, there are privacy laws that could be violated through this process. I wasn't desperately interested in this, but I was interested in why anyone would like to lose the sound of a human voice over a text message and also the implications of this.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8163511.stm

The human voice is a powerful method of communication; it is a personal connection between the caller and the receiver. Think of when you receive recorded (cold call) messages and how monotonous they are - because the voice is reading something automatically. Many people complain when they call a business and receive a bombardment of automated responses with a recorded message.
Also, when you convert a normal conversation into text, you lose some of the subtle messages from pauses, inflections and energy. Unless the text message is carefully punctuated, there are likely to be misunderstandings. It becomes the equivalent of an automised voice - in text.
So why should we wish to lose the human voice and read a text message instead? Could it be that a manufacturer has created another toy and it is just a fad, or do we really wish to lose human contact with each other?

From a personal perspective, I prefer to send and receive voice mail messages and my market research confirms this. As a business we wish to demonstrate that we are human beings and customers want this too. I do send text messages - but only to people I already have some contact with and have established a relationship with.

From a business perspective, I would avoid using this method until - as I have done - I have established a relationship, thus making a quick method of communication permissible. I don't want to hear automated voices or text messages when I am contacting a company, unless I know them well. And remember that large companies that we complained about (except BT) now have a human voice at the other end of a phone within a couple of clicks. What does that tell you about using the voice?