Description
The telemarketing sector is in frank expansion in Brasil, and for many it represents the initial opportunity for formal employment. In active telemarketing, the operator calls the customer whereas in receptive telemarketing the call is made by the customer. Since there is no face to face interaction performance of the operator, in both modalities, is solely dependent on his or her verbal communication skills. Thus, their voice is probably the most important component for success. For good communication there must be variations in voice pitch, loudness, speed and intonation, which are essential for good prosody. However, there are relatively few studies examining the subject of intonation in telemarketing. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to characterize the intonation profile of telemarketing operators, as well as to identify the intonation pattern more widely accepted by the customers of a cellular telephony company. For this, a questionnaire was applied to 212 customers and an analysis of the intonation of 40 telemarketing operators conducted using Brazil´s Interactive Theory of Intonation. 50 customers were also asked to listen to audio recordings containing the most frequent intonation patterns and requested to identify the most pleasant ones. Differences in customer service were observed between the two modalities of telemarketing (active or receptive), especially by younger customers (20-30 year olds). Of the 40 discourses evaluated, the most recurrent intonation pattern was the rise pattern both in the active and receptive telemarketing modalities. In active telemarketing, however, the second most prevalent pattern was the fall pattern, whereas in the receptive modality it was the
fall-rise pattern. Based on the opinion of the 100 customers that listened to the recordings, it may be concluded that regardless of the type of telemarketing, the rise and fall patterns were considered more natural, in contrast to the fall-rise, pattern which was perceived as exagerated or caricatured. In active telemarmarketing the fall pattern was more widely accepted whereas the rise pattern was better accepted in receptive telemarketing. In addition, the rise and fall pattern was more positively evaluated by male customers. Thus, it may be concluded that, regardless of the type of telemarketing, it is necessary for the company to study the profile of its customers in order for its operators to use the most adequate voice intonation
