What is text-to-speech?

Modern synthesis has moved a long way from the flat, clipped delivery of old phone systems. Pauses and emphasis now land roughly where a person would put them.

Where it still slips is the unusual word. A surname, a street name or a local pronunciation can come out wrong in a way that is immediately noticeable.

Speed matters as much as quality. A voice that is technically beautiful but arrives late feels less natural than a plainer one that answers promptly.

Before any sound is made, a speech engine has to turn your text into words, and that step is where odd things happen. Take the line, "Dr. Patel's office is at 1200 Oak Dr., St. 4. Cleanings are $149." A person reads "Dr." two different ways without thinking. An engine has to guess each time, and "St. 4" might come out as "Saint four" or "Street four" when you meant "Suite four".

Numbers carry the same risk. "1200" can be "twelve hundred" or "one thousand two hundred", and a phone number typed as 5550142 may be read as five million and change. Times such as "8-5" can come out as "eight minus five". None of this is a voice quality problem. The most natural voice you can buy will still say "Saint four" if the text lets it.

Every line the assistant can speak deserves one listen, and that's less work than it sounds. Write numbers the way you'd say them, so "one forty-nine" if that's how your front desk says it. Phone numbers go in groups with commas, such as "555, 01, 42". Spell out "Suite", "Drive" and "Doctor" so there's nothing to guess.

Listen on a phone, not on laptop speakers. Phone audio drops the high and low ends of the sound, so a word that's crisp on your computer can smear on a call, and names with soft consonants suffer most. When a name comes out wrong, respell it the way it sounds ("Nwin" for Nguyen, if that's how your colleague says it) and listen again. Keep a short list of those respellings somewhere your team can find it, because a new hire's name will need adding one day.

You write every line GreetKeeper speaks, which is where most of the improvement is available. Plain sentences that name your business read better than anything formal.

The greeting can disclose that the caller is speaking to an assistant, which Maine's chatbot law effectively requires and Utah requires verbally in regulated occupations.

We make no claim that the voice is indistinguishable from a person. Hear it on a demo with your own scenario and judge it yourself.