Voice usage! It’s your calling card over the phone. Your voice can lead someone, without seeing you, to form a positive, sympathetic, uninterested or negative impression of you.

It is therefore crucial to use this properly. A smile can be heard over the phone. Your voice sets the tone for the conversation. The French even say, “C’est le ton qui fait la musique,” which means; the tone creates the music. But how do you set the right tone, come across pleasantly, or be clear in a conversation?

VITA: Volume, Intonation, Tempo & Articulation

VITA is a model used as a mnemonic for voice usage in (phone) conversations. You can use it to achieve your goal or ensure the conversation flows smoothly and without friction.

Volume

Voice volume tells a lot about how confident or uncertain you appear. It’s not surprising that a loud voice comes across as more confident than a soft voice. If your message is crucial and needs to be conveyed clearly, a loud voice is best. When you receive good news or someone else shares something that makes you happy, voices naturally tend to get a bit louder. When someone has less good news, it’s appropriate to adopt a softer voice. Modulate your voice volume to keep the other person engaged or fade into the background more.

Listen here for an example of voice volume:

Intonation

Sentences are made up of different tones and pitches, just like a melody. These different pitches in your voice while pronouncing sentences are called intonation. Intonation signals where a sentence begins and ends. In the case of an important announcement, you emphasize this subject. You do this by making your voice higher, louder, slower, and more powerful. This makes the listener recognize a ‘pay attention’ moment. Clear intonation keeps your conversation partner attentive. Little intonation (monotonous) results in uninteresting and dull conversations. In such a case, your conversation partner will quickly lose interest.

Listen here for an example of intonation:

Tempo

A steady conversation tempo gives the other person time to absorb all information. It also ensures better clarity since it promotes articulation. Not only can the listener follow your conversation word for word, but it also ensures that you as the speaker pronounce every word fully. Our Dutch phonetic alphabet at the bottom of this page can help you with this. The big advantage of speaking calmly is that the message you want to convey is better received by the other person. Speaking too fast or too slow is exhausting to listen to. Therefore, be mindful of this. When applying this technique, varying faster and slower speeds is pleasant. Are you enthusiastic? Then you’ll naturally speak a little higher and faster. If someone shares bad news, you often respond calmly to such a message automatically. We recommend adapting your phone tempo to that of the other. If someone speaks quickly, you can increase your tempo. If the other person speaks very slowly, then reduce your tempo. Be like a chameleon and adjust to the other person’s tempo.

Listen here for an example of speaking tempo:

Articulation

Articulation is all about pronunciation. Clearly pronouncing words and sounds results in a clearer message. Swallowing or mumbling words or letters makes you hard to understand. Some accents are more inwardly spoken. If you know this about yourself, pay extra attention to it. Good articulation ensures the listener understands all your words clearly and the information comes across ‘loud and clear’.

In recording commercials, it’s always advised not to drink too much coffee. Good articulation can cause a dryer mouth. So, try having a glass of water alongside coffee at work. It’s not only good for hydrating your body but also a miracle remedy for your vocal cords.

Listen here for an example of articulation:

“Your posture and voice usage affect your energy level, and the other person can feel it!” 

Bas, Customer Service Representative at ContactCare

We can learn a lot from dog training

It’s quite an odd comparison – Equating dog training with holding a phone conversation. The energy you convey as the owner to the dog heavily influences its behaviour. It works the same way over the phone. Your posture and voice usage affect your energy level. The customer can hear it when your energy is high and you’re working attentively, or when your energy is low and not doing so. Always try to stay in your energy!