Energy

The speed and volume of your delivery can greatly influence how well your customer understands you.  As a general rule, younger people speak and hear more quickly, while older individuals may take a little more time to digest what you are saying.  Similarly, younger people can hear you at a lower volume than your more senior customers can.  By simply varying your speed and volume according to age, you may be able to improve your communications.

It may also be important to slow down your speech when you are speaking to someone whose native tongue is not the same as yours.  Accents can make it hard to understand speech that is rapid.  Take care not to speak more loudly just because someone is foreign.  Volume doesn't help if you are speaking so quickly they cannot make out the words clearly.

You can often take your cue as to how fast and loud you should be speaking by simply listening to what the other person is saying.  If they are constantly asking you to repeat things, you know you either need to speak more loudly or more slowly.  If they speak in short, clipped sentences with rapid speech, it may mean that they are in a hurry, and they may be wishing you'd speed it up a little.  If they are whispering, they may be giving you a hint that you are talking too loudly.

Keep in mind that when you are stressed, your speech rate naturally increases.  When you are making a presentation or speaking on the phone to a valuable potential client, concentrate on slowing your speech down just a bit to counteract the effects of stress.

Another note about volume:  soft speech is often interpreted as uncertainty, while louder speech may indicate knowledge, confidence, and commitment.

The Importance of Breathing

It may seem relatively obvious that it is important to breathe before you talk, but you might not know that when you become stressed, you are likely to begin breathing more quickly and more shallowly.  Fast, shallow breaths make your voice go up in pitch, telling your listener that you are feeling strained.  This is especially important if you are negotiating for something, as your listener can capitalize on this as a perceived weakness.  If you can calm down your breathing, you will have a much calmer tone of voice.  Calm voices are very important not only in emergencies, but also in negotiations, and in responding to complaints.

To assure you are supporting your voice with the proper amount of breath, remember to breathe from your diaphragm.  The diaphragm is a large muscle that separates your abdomen from your chest cavity.  When you breathe from your diaphragm, your stomach rises when you inhale.  If you are chest-breathing, only your chest will rise.  To practice diaphragmatic breathing, lean over in your chair so that your belly is against your thighs.  Take a deep breath.  Can you feel your stomach pressing against your legs?  If so, you are breathing from your diaphragm.

Other ways to improve tone of voice

Impact Communications, a consulting firm specializing in improving client companies' communications skills, recommends these other tips to improving tone of voice:

• Drink lots of water to keep the voice sounding pleasant all day long. The ordinary person uses up a quart of water an hour. When you talk all day long on the phone, it is important to keep the vocal cords lubricated.
• Sit up straight. Posture does affect breathing.
• Use gestures when you speak, even though the person on the other end of the phone can't see them. It is especially important to use gestures when you are tired. Making gestures forces you to breathe more deeply, bringing more air into your lungs.  This gives your voice additional power and will help you to emphasize words or phrases to get your point across.[i]  Gesturing can also help to relieve muscle tension in your upper body, helping you to sound calm when the customer is upset.[ii]