Let’s Talk: Tone of Voice

Give your voice app the personality it deserves

Tone of voice is something that is often considered when discussing a brands written content, and is even more relevant when watching an advert between programs or video streams, but with the dawn of voice, how can brands get the tone of voice right for a digital assistant?

Context is King

The context of tone can vary wildly, and this couldn’t be clearer than with voice assistants.

Take an example of a banking voice assistant, a chirpy friendly voice might suit the brand, and it might be great when it’s pay day. Yet when hitting your overdraft limit, or faced with a hefty fine, you probably don’t want the same joyous voice as when you have paid in a fat cheque. The Context of a situation is equally, if not more important, than the content and tone of the conversation.

Give it some personality

Rather than picking a single tone for your voice assistant, pick a personality; a harmonious range of tones, emanating from a single character.

It’s time to review your brand’s narrative, and find the correct character that can integrate with its story. Just as you can show a range of emotions, so can your voice assistant.

Continuity of care

In the medical world, continuity of care is one experience that is highly valued by patients, and shows a strong correlation with quality of care. It’s very human to prefer regularly seeing one doctor or nurse, than get a different experience each time. You build up a rapport, and most importantly, trust, between patient and caregiver.

This experience migrates nicely to the world of voice assistants as well, if you were to open up an assistant and speak to an Irish male one session, and an Australian female the next, this starts alarm bells ringing in the mind of the consumer as to the authenticity of the experience.

Remember your Purpose

A common pitfall of creating a voice assistant, is to forget it’s purpose. Going back to the banking example, the assistant who is looking at your bank
records is probably not, in all honesty, going to be your friend. It is more likely to be a desk clerk who is helpful, trustworthy and unobtrusive.

A great example of this is American Airlines. As you would expect they use an American female voice, which fits neatly with the experience of flying with them and meeting the check-in desk and air hostess’. Likewise, your pizza delivery assistant probably isn’t going to treat you as an air-hostess might. They have the opportunity to be a little more fun with their characters.

Remembering who your brand is and what your relationship is with
its customers is key. Keep your tones within context and
give your assistant a consistent character throughout the interaction with a given consumer.

Stick to the four principles and you will have a trustworthy, authentic
brand experience, that will meet your customer’s expectations.