In our previous article it was already established that chatbots have revolutionised customer service. With them, you can provide a faster and simpler service to your clients. In the world of advertising and online ads, the personalised communication provided by chatbots can give you a head start against your competitors. Moreover, you can process a much bigger number of messages this way than with a traditional phone-based customer service.

However, it is also an important aspect of this matter that people have been communicating via phone for a much longer time than via smartphones and messaging apps. 90% of human communication happens through either personal interaction or phone calls. If you think about it, the rate is quite easy to account for: speech had developed in human development and communication much earlier than writing.

A more personal user experience

One big advantage of chatbots is the fact that instead of one-size-fits-all solutions it provides a personalised user experience to every customer. And the experience can only be improved if you make the chatbot voice-activated. Compared to other methods, a voice-activated technology (that also replies to you in a human voice) is more human, so it provides a more positive experience to the user.

Besides that, if you use voice-activated technology, the user has the opportunity to do multiple activities at the same time. Typing in a message requires more concentration (and more time) than simply dictating what you would like to a machine. Although the generation raised in the world of smartphones is better than ever at multitasking, it is still simpler to do it if you don’t have to keep an eye on the device all the time, but you can run your errands while taking a bath or even driving.

Another attractive feature of voice-activated chatbots is that you can cut out all physical contact to the smartphone or the computer. This way it is not only possible for the user to do multiple things at once, but also to run their errands anytime and anywhere without having to even touch the device. Similarly to the case of Amazon Echo, it is enough for you to only call out to the chatbot, and you do not have to enter any kind of application or push buttons on your phone.

Coordinating human and machine communication

You cannot underestimate the needs of customers. Today there are quite a few people who still trust humans more than machines. However, artificial intelligence is more reliable and operates with a smaller error-rate, and it is also faster at solving tasks than humans. These two advantages are brought together in an artificial intelligence which has both the trustworthiness of a machine and the features of a human as well.

Another advantage is that you only have to put your available services and products into the machine, and it can give advice and provide help to customers straight away, while still maintaining the personal nature of the interaction.

Machine-to-machine interaction

The user experience does not only become more complete by voice-activated technology, but also by machine-to-machine interaction, which becomes significantly simpler thanks to artificial intelligence and IoT technology. Since more and more devices are interconnected through IoT, you only have to tell the chatbot what you want to do, and it can immediately start looking for a solution. This way you can for example order food – so you don’t have to type what you want and from where into your phone, but you only have to call out to the device. If it is within range, it will order the food you want from the appropriate provider. Think about how simple it would be if the chatbot just asked you how you want to pay, and the answer could simply be “the usual debit card.”

Voice-activated chatbots in business

Voice-activated chatbots are not only suitable for personal purposes, but they can become an important part of every business’ strategy soon enough.

One of the most important tasks completed by chatbots is, of course, customer service. Not only can you provide faster and complete services to your clients, but machines have a much bigger memory than humans, plus it can offer the same experience to users at any time of day and any time of year. However, at a customer service operated by manpower, tiredness and for example public holidays can be factors that affect work.

Also, you cannot forget that today’s young people who were raised in the world of smartphones like to solve the problems on their own, rather than accepting the help of another human being. According to research conducted by IBM, 70% of Generation Z youngsters think that a phone customer service is not the best solution to solve their problems, but they would rather get information on forums or an online customer service provider.

Besides the advantages mentioned above, a voice-activated customer service can be completely personalised, so it can be an ideal solution for any enterprise. Instead of a standard chatbot (which works in the same way on every messaging platform), you can choose the voice, style of use of words, so that it complies perfectly with the profile of the company. If you want to, you can also make the customers themselves choose between the chatbots, so you can make the standards of the customer service even higher.

Cost-friendly innovation

For enterprises, the biggest advantage of voice-activated chatbots is the cost-effectivity of the technology. You only have to set up and programme the device once; after that, you might only need some fine-tuning. By contrast, a customer service which is operated by human resources is not only more expensive, but more time and resources are needed in order to train the workers. A chatbot that has a voice-recognition software built in is 60-80% less expensive than an own customer service (or one outsourced to a call center).

The significance of the technology has already been recognised by a number of companies – just think about Amazon Echo or Google Assistant. It is only a matter of time until most of the big enterprises and smaller companies join the chatbot bandwagon as well.

In a later blog post, we are going to write about more advantages of voice-activated technology for businesses, and you will also see how you can make your company more successful by analysing customer interactions and improving the technology.

Sources: Entrepreneur, Intercom, IBM