First chatbots, now voicebots. Voice-enabled chatbots are becoming the future of customer service. We are using voicebots more than we realize (Google Home, Alexa, anyone?) In fact, according to a study, 55% of respondents are using voice assistants to ask questions.
In the U.S only, there are 110 million users of voice assistants. Moreover, Australians adoption of voice assistants technology is blazing ahead. Voice assistants are everywhere, with even the Playstation 5 featuring a voicebot to help gamers. As a result, the Voicebots market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 35% by 2023, and conversational user interfaces are in a mature position with more long-term adopters.
So, why do you need to add a voicebot for your company? In this post, We’ll explain voicebots and when should you add one to your customer service strategy.
What is a Voicebot?
A voicebot is artificial intelligence (AI) software that enables a caller to use an interactive voice response (IVR) system with their voice or make enquiries/commands via an intelligent assistant like Alexa or Google Assistant. To put it in simple terms, is a virtual assistant that recognizes voice commands and helps users with queries and simple tasks.
These types of software use natural language processing to understand questions and interact with the user. So, what is Natural Language Processing? We can define NLP as an AI technology that enables software solutions to understand what the user is saying.
Unlike the lift in this video, modern AI voicebots with NLP can understand different accents.
Thus, voicebots enable people to communicate with a digital assistant and complete day-to-day tasks. That means users won’t have to pick up the phone and wait on line for a human agent to take care of them.
Voicebots improve the way companies offer customer service, giving users a direct and almost frictionless interaction. Click to Tweet
What can you use a voicebot for?
Voicebots are becoming popular across industries, for businesses and consumers. Voice assistants help businesses to book meetings, share files, help users with queries and other actions via voice command. Voicebots oriented to consumers, like Google Home and Alexa, interact with humans to complete daily tasks, such as ordering groceries, paying bills or making calls. According to Gartner, voice assistants are among the top customer experience (CX) trends to watch for CIOs:
Chatbots, virtual assistants and robots drive seamless and effortless experience, and their usage is bound to increase. Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70% of customer interactions will involve emerging technologies such as machine learning (ML) applications, chatbots and mobile messaging (Gartner)
You can learn more tips on how to extend from chatbot to voicebot in this meetup session: From Chatbots to Voicebots
Should you Add a Voicebot for Customer Service?
Traditional IVR systems often frustrate users with impersonal and outdated systems. A bad experience can prevent customers to come back to your company. Updating IVR systems can require a lot of time and money. With recent advancements in technology Voicebots go a step further improving the quality of speech recognition (automatic speech recognition – ASR) and NLP frameworks.
Why Adding a Voice Technology Solution Improves your Customer Service
- Improved efficiency = more effective use of $
Offering your users an over-the-phone customer service will be always restricted to the number of agents you’ll have available. Thus, if your customer demand is growing, you’ll have to recruit more agents or deal with customer dissatisfaction. Unlike phone customer service a voicebot solution can scale to meet peak demands.
- Reduced waiting times = better customer experience
Long waiting times are the first reason people abandon a customer service line and may seek to use other channels costing your business more to service the same customer through multiple channels. Voicebots answer common questions automatically, reducing waiting time and improving the user experience. In the end, what matters most to users is that their queries are answered quickly.
- Increase of performance recognising customer intent = consistency customer experience
Human operators can confuse a request and even a traditional IVR menus are complicated with high mis-route rates. Natural language AI-powered voicebots can identify the customer’s intent and more accurately and consistently to then route or automate the response.
Cons of Adding a VoiceBot
Not all situations are suited to a voicebot. Here are some considerations:
- Voice is ephemeral
Conversations that take place inside a text chatbot like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger enable the user to re-read the conversation history if something was missed or was unclear. Contrarily, voice conversations don’t allow for that; Miss what’s said and there’s no easy way to backtrack.
- Lack of privacy
People tend to avoid using voice assistants when in public because of privacy concerns. This limits the possibility of using the voicebot to private environments such when they are at home or in their cars. A potential alternative is to extend to a companion chatbot in a text/messaging channel.
- Limited graphic display.
While voicebots can carry entire conversation dialogues, presenting lengthy text can be challenging. Careful consideration needs to made in how best to present links, contact numbers or products in an alternate channel.
3 Ways to Get Started with Voice
Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll have the basics to extend your chatbot to voice. But where do you start? Here are three tips:
- Try a demo – Evaluate the impact on customer experience with a a professionally recoded demo and test with real customers.
- Hire an expert – The right consulting company can pinpoint exactly the ROI/Benefits you will obtain through adding voice solutions. They will also help you target the quick wins and setup your roadmap for success.
- Build an MVP – A minimum viable product (or proof of concept) can let you see how adding voice capabilities work “on the field” and test various hypotheses about where voice fits in your customer experience.
We at Pure Speech Technology know the results of adding a voice solution can have on customer satisfaction and use of resources. After all, we have over 17 years’ of expertise in voice technologies. Learn more about how Pure Speech Technology Voice Solutions increases ROI and give your customers a seamless experience.