About

Sometimes, life surprises you with a detour you didn’t quite expect. This, in part, is my voice-over talent journey. It led me from a focus on my original passion for narration voice-overs down a slightly divergent but very rewarding path! Thanks for your interest! ~ Michelle

About Custom On-Hold Promotions by Michelle

Custom On-Hold Promotions is a woman-owned, small business launched in January 2001 by voice-over talent Michelle D. Rowe of Wilmington, Delaware. Before its launch, Michelle researched and studied the on-hold industry in 2000. She gained a strong belief in the value and many benefits of promotional and informative messages that are phonecasted to a business’s callers waiting on-hold.

Originally intended as a “niche” to add to her overall voice-over business known as Minowa Voice-overs, Custom On-Hold Promotions developed over many years into an entirely separate entity. Michelle’s enjoyment and dedication to serve the Delaware business community and other businesses in the United States in this creative manner soon dominated her commercial and narration voice-over business.

For over twenty-three years, Michelle has combined her voice-over talent skills with work experience in sales, feature story writing, copywriting and digital audio production. Bundling these skills together, she writes, voices and produces impactful customized messages with music on-hold for businesses in Delaware and throughout the United States.

With determination, Michelle has been passionate about helping businesses project a professional image to their callers, while also promoting their products and services on hold. She works with customers to determine the best course of action for content and formatting for their custom written messages on-hold. The entire experience is genuinely customized without any high tech shortcuts.

Michelle is always eager to work with her clients, many of whom have never had this service before. Dealing directly with her, your experience with Custom On-Hold Promotions by Michelle will be an easy process and far from intimidating. It will not be an anonymous experience, as can be with a larger company. Michelle enjoys interacting with her customers during this process. She strives to excel and is committed to deliver high quality, impactful audio recordings.

Michelle D. Rowe is also available to record or dial in other types of messages for a business phone system, such as the Auto Attendant Message including a Directory, Main Greeting, After Hours Greeting, Voice Prompts and Voicemail. She also offers her writing skills to tighten up or improve upon a script, if requested.

A few words directly from founder and voice-over talent Michelle D. Rowe

Authentic, Real Human Voice-overs Recorded on the Microphone:

As is with other types of voice-overs, when I get on the microphone, I am very attuned to the audience to whom I am addressing. With phone messages, my job is to speak and connect with your callers and represent your business until you are available. I do not take this lightly. You will not receive an auto-generated, artificially intelligent or cloned voice-over. All your on-hold messages are recorded directly into a microphone, in real time and with no artificial “cloned voice” short-cuts. You can trust that what your callers will hear is a genuine, authentic voice-over talent who is also behind writing the script. Once I get on the microphone, I truly feel like a spokesperson for your business!

Easy on the Ears – Over 26 Years of Experience in Voice-overs:

My voice-over performance is filled with over twenty-six years experience as voice-over talent who has worked with a variety of types of content and businesses. I’ve created my own style that includes the voice-over technique I’ve learned, along with caring about reaching your callers in a genuine, expressive voice. My voice-overs are usually moderately paced and “easy on the ears”. The recording you receive will encompass the skills of a real human being with whom you’ve interacted – a woman who enjoys her work and cares about the work she does to excel and best represent your business. You will hear a synthesis of mind, heart, experience and knowledge – not an A.I. voice-over that is void of the human touch, totally disengaged from knowledge and understanding of your business. (I can only hope there are businesses left who still care about the more human connection in this modern age that has definitely impacted the voice-over industry.)

Professional Recording Equipment and Software:

To record, I use all professional recording software (Pro-Tools) and hardware. With over twenty-three years of digital audio production experience, your recording will be high quality in any audio format required.

Experience Providing Audio for Hosted, Cloud-Based or VoIP Phone Systems:

The majority of businesses have migrated to using internet-based phone systems rather than traditional KSU phone systems, to which an external on-hold unit can be installed. Some “hybrid” phone systems still allow this, but companies who retain this more traditional feature seem to be going the way of the dinosaur! Over the years, I have provided audio for many different types of hosted, VoIP or cloud-based phone systems. As a result, I am adept at formatting your audio files to work in your best interest. This is a very important part of successfully implementing custom messages and music on-hold! If you’re shopping around to upgrade your phone system, just know what questions to ask if marketing on-hold is an important aspect of operating your business. Feel free to get in touch with me if you need some help with this.

Sound Quality:

Have you ever been on-hold with tinny and inferior sounding messages on-hold? It’s an aural assault to your ears! Having high quality audio playing on your phone system is critical for public perception of your business and your caller’s listening experience. I’m committed to delivering the highest quality audio that your phone system can handle. I have built up many years of experience delivering high quality phone message recordings for a variety of providers of cloud-based, hosted and VOIP phone systems. My goal is to deliver the best sounding audio files to ensure that your waiting callers on-hold have a positive experience.

Bad audio quality can reflect negatively on your business, not to mention really annoy the caller on-hold! That could possibly result in a hang up! I go out of my way to help avoid that at all costs by finding out the technical requirements for your specific type of phone system. I always follow up with a Sound Check to be sure it sounds just as good as when it left my studio. I will also check on the formatting to be sure it’s been installed to play correctly. These follow ups are an important part of my service to be sure all is sounding and working well once all your recordings are in place.

About Founder and Voice-over Talent, Michelle D. Rowe – a little history here

Thank you for your interest and scrolling down this far! How did I get to this point? That is, why the focus on phone message recordings after starting a voice-over career performing narration and commercial work? It all started 27 years ago . . .

My Voice-over Journey

In the beginning:

My active voice-over journey started in the fall of 1998 with a passionate interest in narration style voice-overs. After researching the voice-over industry, I attended voice-over workshops in Philadelphia and New York City. I also took private coaching lessons for narration and commercial work, commuting from north Wilmington to Bethesda, MD and Philadelphia, PA. With determination and newly honed skills, I set out to enter the voice-over industry that fall. I was able to do this through a lot of hard work and grit, making cold calls and sending out voice-over demos. These first demos were “old school” cassettes at first, then CDs. Being a creative person, I enjoyed designing the covers myself by using popular desktop publishing software at the time, known as QuarkXPress. (still around and going strong!) Over the years, I’ve performed a variety of types of narrations, including documentary, instructional, promotional, medical and others. I obtained this work through my own marketing efforts to video production and multi-media companies throughout the United States. Clients included Amtrak, Audubon Society, the Marriott Hotel and many others.

Adding Commercials to Broaden my Range:

Advice was given to me early in my voice-over career to broaden my range as voice-over talent and go beyond narration. That led me to add commercials to my repertoire, so I took private commercial voice-over acting lessons at the Actor’s Center in Philadelphia. I was then hired for various local or regional commercials, including for radio, cable and TV. In the early years, my most notable commercials were for a local Delaware based car dealership, Carman-Ford Lincoln Mercury, which aired on local radio stations and cable television. Later, I was also hired to voice a regional TV commercial in Canada – located and hired by a fellow voice-over talent from Canada!

My Voice-over Talent Journey Detoured me to an Unexpected Path I’ve Embraced:

Along the way, I learned about yet another type of voice-overs – messages that are “phonecasted” on business phone systems. Specifically, messages with music on-hold. I realized I already had all the skills necessary to write, voice and produce audio recordings for messages and music on-hold. I invested in a wide variety of license-free music to mix with the voice-overs. Once I developed my new “niche” business, I was excited about being able to offer a set of skills I had already acquired to directly reach a wider business community than with voice-overs alone. Staying with it as long as I have and having it dominate the rest of my voice-over business surprised me when I counted the years!! Time really does fly, as the saying goes!

I strayed far away from my original passion to obtain more narration work for video and documentary presentations, though I had already achieved that over a matter of several years. However, messages on-hold is often just that – a narration. Sometimes, the content calls for more of an upbeat advertising and commercial feel. It all depends on the content.

I am versatile and adapt to the content. For example, a medical script for a cancer clinic can be both a serious and compassionate narration. As part of the process of putting together a custom written script with voice-overs and music, I’ve really enjoyed interacting with and getting to know a variety of interesting people over the years. I’ve had customers that go back 15-20 years! It has been very professionally and personally rewarding to interact with such a wide array of interesting business owners or others. That’s the people person side of me!

The Personal Touch as a Small Business Owner:

I consider myself a caring, friendly person and take a genuine interest in my customers. Be sure to visit my testimonials page for customer feedback over many years. It would be my privilege to work with you to project a highly professional image to your callers, while also benefiting your business in so many other ways. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Michelle D. Rowe

P.S. If by chance you are also interested in a narration for a YouTube video, website video or any other type of video presentation, let me know. That’s how this all started, after all!