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How brands seek to adopt their own – private – voice tech.
Summer is finally behind us, or we wish to think so (J), towards Q4 / 2019, organizations start to finalize their financial and work plans towards 2020. Part of these plans include the Voice technology, which becomes a major part of any planning - from consumers’ centric organization, to employees’ interaction and efficiency considerations.
In this post I will describe several use cases, which illustrates the cross-market-segment interest that voice technology is raising, and that we encounter at Tukuoro.
The common factors for all the use case described below are:
Controlling data flow, or data ownership. When an organization deploys a voice user interface, it will seek to have control over the users’ information used by the voice technology, especially when it comes to users’ personal data and the business data which is part of the engagement.
Supporting Languages / Accent. Organizations deployed globally, or those who have users speaking in different accents, when using unique terms (corporate lingo). For such organizations, the users will have a frustrating experience, when they will try to make the engagement in voice due to in accuracy. A good example is illustrated in this video:
Implementation Complexity. Organizations, usually not having an R&D capabilities within voice tech software development, will look for a simple to implement solution, which requires them minimum efforts during integration, testing, deployment and maintenance of the voice functionality…
Use case Flexibility. As voice tech is in it’s early days, organizations look to start small, with simple use cases, but soon enough extend it to add more functionality, as their users adopt the new UX.
Use Cases – beyond the obvious
The past few years, were packed with increasing number of notifications, messages, articles, media coverage and more - all discussing the Smart Speaker (market, trends, challenges, etc.).
Naturally this also created massive engagement with the subject matter, and employed many activities and coverage, such as best smart speaker for year 2019, “Smart Speakers adoption”, “Smart speakers discovery challenge” and so on.
I argue that smart speakers are not the only way to go with VOICE. In fact, the smart speakers phenomena is mainly the tip of the iceberg, and the real value of Voice User Interface and its huge potential is found elsewhere. Voice becomes a standard and expected user interface, to the degree it is being part of nearly any market segment one can think of, whether for consumer / customers engagement, or for internal / employees activities, including: filed employees reporting (CRM, ERP, FSM, and more), anonymous consumer engagement (Vending Machines, Ticketing, In-Store smart devices, Digital Signage), In-App user activity (retail apps, services apps, and any other brand related apps), Smart home automation (the smart appliances, and beyond) and of course the in-car voice assistant – while we are getting closer to the semi-autonomous cars, and anticipating the truly autonomous era.
Thus, in fact, everything is voice enabled in potential, and what we experience in the past few months is that – indeed- many brands in every segment, are looking for the best way to make voice technology a valid one for them, within their own requirements.
Data is missing from the enterprise data store. The field employee is always on the go, traveling from customer to customer, from site to site, and in most cases, does not visit the office quite so often. The information generated during the field visits is crucial to the organization’s planning, and growth.
Typing-in information is an ongoing battle in so many organizations and now, instead of tackling this challenge in a carrot / stick approach, the new UI – Voice, becomes relevant, while it allows employees to have an intuitive interaction with the corporate platform.
The traveling agent can submit a meeting summary in just 30 secs, while traveling to the next meeting. He or she can query information, stored after the previous meeting, to get acquainted with the up to date status, or inquire a specific technical information.
Considerations in this use case: Business Data privacy, supporting multi language, corporate lingo, simple integration with enterprise data store, in –app api support.
The Anonymous Consumer Engagement
While smart speakers are somewhat personal devices, in the sense they are used within the privacy of the home – mostly in their living room, followed by in their bed room - some research say.
Yet, an increasing number of publicly accessible devices start offering the voice functionality. In these cases, the user is anonymous to the platform - and the service offered in voice is focused. Possible use cases can be – a ticketing vending machine, smart digital signage, in-store or in-building help kiosk stations, and more.
Considerations in this use case: Edge device platform support, ease of implementation, supporting unique service, Offline deployment, Stand alone edge support.
In-app voice UX
As different segments require voice user experience, many of which are looking to embed the voice UI within an existing application. This results in new type of a challenge for the brand – enabling the Voice feature within their existing application, usually developed by outsource contractor.
Once defining the services within the application which will become available in voice, the brand is looking for applying the voice UI quickly and safely, without having to be concerned with every version upgrade or adopting new scenario. Integration needs to be plug and play.
Considerations in this use case: ease of implementation, easy feature enhancement, users’ data privacy, business data privacy and ownership, mobile platform independence, language, accent and natural speaking support.
What’s next?
Tukuoro is the Voice Open Platform. The use cases outlined in this article are based on existing Tukuoro customers and best practices.
Reach out to us and learn how to make your interface Voice enabled.