Pronunciations

Your receptionist reads words the way they’re spelled. Names like Okafor, Siobhan, Nguyen or Schaumburg can come out wrong, and so can brand names and trade terms. Pronunciations fix that: you list a word and how it should sound, and your agent says it that way on every call.

The same list helps your agent listen. When a caller says one of your words, the transcript, the call summary and the message your team receives spell it your way.

Where to find it

• During setup: the Pronunciations step comes right after Build my agent, so your first test call already uses it. You can skip it and come back later.
• Later: open Agent, then Pronunciations.

Suggested words

The first time you open Pronunciations, Xaller.ai reads your business name, description, services, address, service area, your agent’s name and your greeting. It suggests the words a voice is likely to get wrong, each with a pronunciation in IPA and a note saying where the word appears.

Suggestions wait in Waiting for review. Your agent doesn’t use them until you approve them. For each suggestion you can:

• press Play to hear it in your agent’s voice;
• change Say it as if it sounds wrong;
• Approve it, or Delete it. A deleted suggestion isn’t suggested again.

Approve all approves every suggestion that’s waiting. After you change your business details, Find words again looks for new words.

Adding your own words

Under Your words, use Add a word. Words you add are approved right away.

Say it as takes either of two forms. Xaller.ai stores exactly what you type and shows which form it detected:

Form	Example	Shown as
Sounds like: the word spelled the way it sounds, with the stressed part in capitals	oh-KAH-for	Sounds like
IPA: the International Phonetic Alphabet, between slashes	/oʊˈkɑːfɔːr/	IPA

If you don’t know IPA, use the sounds-like form. Press Play to check either one.

One word per field

Each field holds a single word, so each name sounds right wherever it appears. For a two-word name such as Wiedemann Road, add only the word that’s hard to say (Wiedemann). If you type a space, the field explains this instead. You can list up to 50 words.

Hearing a word

Play speaks the word in your agent’s voice, using what’s in the row right now, saved or not. It’s close to a real call but not identical: make a test call to hear your words in context.

When changes apply

Test calls use your latest list straight away. Phone calls use it once you Publish your agent, like any other agent setting. Restoring an earlier version also restores that version’s pronunciations.

Healthcare accounts

In healthcare mode, suggestions and Play stay off until our speech provider is verified for healthcare. You can still add words and how to say them, and your agent uses them on calls. Suggestions only read your business details, never anything a caller said.