---
title: "Tune speech and turn taking"
description: "Improve interruption handling, names and perceived response time."
url: "https://documentation.verbatik.com/speech-settings/"
---

# Tune speech and turn taking

Improve interruption handling, names and perceived response time.

## Start from the defaults
Open the agent's **Speech settings** and **Realtime transcription** sections. The controls available depend on the selected engine. Managed realtime engines handle parts of speech generation and turn taking themselves; not every pipeline control applies to every model.

Change one setting at a time, save, and compare the same recording conditions. Use a headset in a quiet room before treating echo or a noisy laptop microphone as an agent problem.

## Common adjustments
**Pronunciation** maps a written word to its spoken form. Follow the editor's one-word-to-spoken-form-per-line format. Use it for clinic names, addresses and staff names, then listen to the result.

**Clinic vocabulary** helps recognition of names and terms. Keep the list focused on likely caller phrases rather than pasting a whole document.

**Reminder text** controls what the agent says after silence; leaving it blank uses the caller's language where supported. Test that a quiet caller gets a useful prompt without repeated interruptions.

Speech thresholds and timing affect how quickly a turn starts or finishes. An aggressive setting may feel faster but cut off a caller who pauses. Validate slow speakers, short answers, background noise and barge-in.

## Diagnose a slow turn
Separate the delay before transcription, reasoning, external tool execution and playback. Calendar or CRM requests can dominate a turn. A short contextual filler can acknowledge that work is in progress, but does not mean the action succeeded. The agent must still wait for a successful tool receipt before confirming a booking, cancellation or message.