Hey Alexa, how can my business capitalise on emerging voice-first trends?

Redbox announced at the end of last year more businesses will move towards a ‘voice-first’ strategy, within the next five years. In a survey carried out by Redbox, 95% of C-suite executives, IT management employees and CIOs said that voice was valuable to their organisation.

Of course, phones have been around for a long time. But with further advancements in voice-technology, there’s predictions that more businesses will adopt digital assistants like Alexa and that there will be the opportunity to make better use of voice data.

The question is, which areas in business will these emerging trends positively affect? Here, we will summarise the key areas to capitalise on voice-first communications (explained better than Alexa could).

Creating better Customer Experiences

As part of Digital Transformation, the amount of data we can collect and analyse is vast. Voice data is ‘big data’ that contains a wealth of information that businesses can use to improve the customer experience.

By utilising voice data, it’s easier for businesses to understand their customers’ emotions. Empowering them to delve deeper into their customer experience analytics. It’s far easier to gauge how someone is feeling by understanding not only the content of the conversation but the tone of voice that it was said in.

Being able to capture the sentiment of customer conversations will have most impact when it comes to revising approaches when dealing with customers’ calls.

Unlocking AI potential

With the rise of AI such as Alexa and Google home, it’s clear to see this section of the market is gaining traction. Alexa owns roughly 70% of the smart speaker market, it’s quite possible that in a few short years we could be talking to our lamps, thermostats and refrigerators from outside the home through her. 

So, it makes sense for businesses to adopt this popular emerging trend and make a way for capabilities that include the likes of Alexa and other AI powered voice technologies.

There are tools businesses can utilise to help analyse customer sentiment for example in real-time. Using AI to help analyse the conversation and attempt to understand the situation.

AI can be taken one step further by introducing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) into the mix. We’ve developed a solution that helps deliver Microservices as part of a workflow. For instance, as part of a concierge service, you could ask Alexa to bring you coffee for 4 at 11 o’clock in the boardroom. Alexa will then email the concierge to request and the coffee will arrive as requested. This can work for many other concierge services such as ordering a taxi or a working lunch.

Bolstering efficiency and productivity in the workplace

Imagine if everyone had their own voice personal assistant? Tasks in hands on industries could be made hands free. In manufacturing you could replace much of the work carried out on a screen and keyboard with a voice assistant, leaving employees to stay focused on the job.

Similarly in office environments, voice personal assistants could be used to book meetings, taking notes and quickly search for products in a company’s database.

The advantages of being an early adopter

At the rate people are adopting voice-first technologies in their every-day lives, it only makes sense for businesses to make room for technology more advanced than just having a handset with call recording.

There’s the opportunity to incorporate Alexa, or to analyse customer sentiment in more detail.