Internet article transcript

Audrey Audix – tmcnet.com – April 2006

(from http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/voip/audrey-audix.html)

Rich Tehrani, CEO, tmcnet.com, April 12, 2006

Audrey Audix may be the most famous person you’ve never heard of. I suppose famous may not be the right word as she is not really well known — her voice is. Loraine has the distinction of being the voice of Audix the voicemail on Avaya PBX systems and her voice is in over 100 million mailboxes including systems such as Intuity and Definity!

She tells me that the first voicemail systems on the market had a Texas accent and then a faster voice was used. Lorraine says the fast voice seemed to upset men who felt like they were being talked down to.

So Lorraine came up with a nice voice that is about as charming as charming gets. Incidentally the voice used is not really Loraine’s real voice so if you think you are going to overhear her in the mall and recognize who she is, you aren’t. The charming voice is Lorraine just being charming when she turns on the charm and says "invalid entry" on the phone it is truly something pleasant to hear.

Lorraine is often referred to as Audrey Audix and is available to record greetings for your corporate IVR/voicemail system. She says she used to get referral business from Avaya but moved out of the country for some time and when she got back to the states she lost touch with her contacts at Avaya. She is rumored to be deceased but she is very much alive and welcomes being contacted by the good people at Avaya and others who are looking for that Audrey Audix personal touch.

Audrey went to live in the Caribbean for three years and has returned to Connecticut to. Being that TMC is also based in Connecticut — I imagine Audrey Audix is a big fan of cold weather and snow – just like the TMC team.

In speaking with the voice of voicemail by phone Lorraine explained that she really focused her delivery on narrowcasting or speaking directly to you. She says this differs from radio where the voice is more like yelling.

When Lorraine first got started recording she says there were no human factors people involved. She received a script and did her best to make the voice as pleasant as possible. She wants you all to know that there really is a person behind all those greetings — someone trying to be nice. She never wants you to think she was rude.”

So the question you must all be wondering about is what does Lorraine feel when she calls a voicemail system and hears her own voice? Honestly she says it feels a bit weird. While it may be weird for her, it would be weirder for all of us if her voice wasn’t in all those voicemail boxes and I for one appreciate knowing there is someone trying to be pleasant on the other end of all those calls.