In this article, we’ll guide you through the best usage practices to ensure that you use Voice Translation to its maximum potential. It’s important to follow these guidelines to get the best results.
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Prepare everything in advance
- If you're an Admin, make sure that the team settings are configured correctly for optimal use.
- If you're a user, prepare the Krisp app & your headset and test Voice Translation before joining a call.
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Set everything up in the calling app
- Make sure that Krisp Microphone and Speaker are selected in the calling app.
- Check your volume and audio settings.
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Start a test call with a peer before jumping into a call with the customer to ensure that you're good-to-go.
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Start speaking only after Voice Translation is ready
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Turn on Voice Translation and wait until the circular progress bar completes before you start speaking. You will see progress indicators for Voice Translation and the prompt, highlighting that the process is still ongoing.
- Anything you say before the progress bar completes is not captured or translated.
- The same applies if you stop and resume translation during the call: wait for the circular bar to complete again before you continue speaking.
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Talk at your natural pace and tone
- Make sure that your words are clear and understandable.
- Don't rush - speak at your natural pace.
- Avoid filler words.
- Translation starts as soon as Krisp collects enough context, which is often a few words into your speech.
- Take brief, sub-second pauses between sentences or paragraphs. This helps Krisp recognize the end of your thought and start translating right away.
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Avoid cross-talk
- Wait for the speaker to finish their sentence and the translation audio to finish before you start your speech.
- When asking questions, make sure that the customer is not speaking over you.
- Avoid long pauses in the speech - this can give the impression that no one is on the line.
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Avoid listening to your own translation
- Focusing on your translation feedback can get confusing, especially if you do not speak the language. Speak as if the interpreter is not even there.
- Do not stop mid-sentence to hear the translation of your own voice.
- Your translated voice plays at a low volume. If it is too loud or distracting, your audio configuration needs adjusting: contact your Admin so they can raise it with Krisp.
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Do not adjust audio settings mid-call, unless necessary
- Muting/unmuting, changing audio settings, and disconnecting/reconnecting your headset mid-call can cause issues in your setup.
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Putting the call on hold or having no audio captured from both sides for 5 minutes will result in the Voice Translation pausing.
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Double-check any ambiguous speech elements, such as dates, names, etc.
- Make sure that you get the details right. For example, if the customer provides you with a date of birth in numeric form, ask them to confirm it verbally ("Did you mean the 4th of October, 1996?"). Use the same approach with ZIP codes and address numbers.
- Krisp handles unambiguous dates automatically. For example, "10/13/47" is always translated as October 13, 1947. When both numbers are 12 or lower, the format can be read differently depending on the language and region, so verbal confirmation is the safest option.
- As an Admin, adjust your team's Vocabulary and Dictionary to ensure that specialized terms get transcribed and translated correctly.
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State the currency before you quote prices
- When you say a price, the system can write it down with a dollar sign even though you said a different currency. The customer is then quoted an amount in a currency you never mentioned.
- State the currency once, before you start quoting prices:
- "Prices are in euros."
- "Prices are in pounds sterling."
- "Prices are in Brazilian reais."
- Say it before the first price. Stating it afterwards will not correct the amounts you have already given.
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Use a form of address in gendered languages
- In some languages, there is no gender-neutral way to say "you": every sentence you address to a customer is either masculine or feminine. Hebrew and Arabic are the clearest examples. When your English sentence does not make it clear who you are speaking to, the translation may use the wrong gender, which sounds awkward to the customer.
- To prevent this, open or close the sentence with a form of address:
- "Sir, are you available on Thursday?"
- "Ma'am, could you confirm the last four digits?"
- "Mr. Cohen, I have updated your account."
- Use "Sir" or "Ma'am", or a title with the surname. These explicitly indicate gender, which a first name on its own may not. You do not need it in every sentence: using it in questions and instructions to the customer is usually enough.
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Fall back to English when no equivalent exists
- When spelling for verification, in some cases, the customer may use letters that don't exist in English. Ask them to spell these letters in English.
- Follow the NATO phonetic alphabet for consistent, predictable spelling.
- A few NATO words are translated literally in other languages, which breaks the spelling. For those letters, use the everyday alternative in the Use instead column.
NATO phonetic alphabet NATO word Use instead NATO word Use instead Alfa November Bravo Oscar Charlie Chocolate Papa Delta Quebec Quesadilla Echo Romeo Foxtrot Sierra Golf Tango Hotel Uniform India Victor Juliett Whiskey Kilo X-ray Xylophone Lima Yankee Yoga Mike Zulu Zorro -
Confirm email addresses in three steps
Email addresses are the hardest thing for a speech system to get right. Unlike ordinary speech, an address is an arbitrary string of characters with no surrounding words to make sense of it, so every single character has to be heard correctly. On top of that, the symbols (@ . _ -) have no standard spoken form and are said differently in every language, and some letters simply sound alike in the customer's language.
- Ask for the name and the email separately. If you ask for both in one question, part of the name often ends up in the address, making it harder to distinguish.
- Ask the customer to spell the address, one letter at a time. Do not ask them to use the phonetic alphabet: most customers do not know it, and improvised versions of it ("O as in Ostrich") often come through worse than plain letters. When you use the address to verify identity, spelling is the only reliable method, so do not rely on the customer saying it normally.
- Read the address back and have the customer confirm it before you use it.
If a letter is unclear, or the customer says your read-back is wrong, use the phonetic alphabet, and only for the letters in doubt, not the whole address. Ask using the word yourself: "Is that F as in Foxtrot?" Getting an address right is hard even in English, so expect to confirm rather than assume.
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Use Spell to verify names, addresses, and other details
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When you need to confirm a name, address, ZIP code, or other spelling-sensitive details, highlight the translation of your speech in the Live Widget and click Spell. Krisp shows a Spelling... indicator with the word and reads it out letter-by-letter in the target language, so the customer can verify the correctness.
- Spell works on your customer's translated speech as well, so you can also confirm a detail they gave you.
- Pair this with the NATO phonetic alphabet above when the detail is critical, so each letter comes across clearly.
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Monitor system performance
- If you notice delays or glitches, check your computer's CPU and GPU usage and network connectivity. Check out the recommended system requirements for Voice Translation for more details.
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Share your feedback about Voice Translation
- Evaluate the performance after the call in the call evaluation modal window. Rate the overall experience from 1 to 5.
- If you rate the call 3 or lower, add a comment about what went wrong.
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Report a problem when you come across one.
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Check our FAQs for answers and common troubleshooting steps.