How To Create A Voice Bot

Today a number of routine processes that were previously performed by call center operators can be taken over by voice bots. However, tasks that chatterbots perform are not only limited to call-center "operators". Thus, in the article, we will identify the use cases for voice AI in your business, the key benefits of choosing a voice bot solution, and its development best practices.

Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that enables automatic messaging and communication between computers and humans.
Conversational AI is used both in personal virtual assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, and Alice, as well as in specialized chatbots and IVR systems (Interactive Voice Response) to serve business needs, clients support.
Voice bot, also called "voice-enabled chatbot", "talkbot," "chatterbot", is AI software that perceives voice commands and gives voice response.
There are two types of voice bots:
- Hybrid model: bots with voice and text control.
- Voice bots: only implement voice technology.
According to the Global sales of smart speakers by the International Data Corporation, the market for voice assistance will grow from $4.4 billion in 2017 to $17.4 billion by 2022. If this forecast is correct, this is an increase of 31.6 percent.
According to Gartner, by 2023, 25% of employee interaction with applications will be through the voice assistant.

Content

Tasks your business solve with voice bots
Key benefits of voice bots
How to choose a voice bot solution?
Best practices of voice bot development
Does your business need voice technology?
FAQ: Voice AI Technology

Tasks your business solve with voice bots

The business tasks of voice bots are impressive. In terms of their functionality, they can add significant value to call center operators, sales managers, secretaries, taxi service dispatchers, bank consultants, or headhunters. Voice assistants recognize 97% of speech, integrate with any CRM, instantly search and analyze information.

Let's take a closer look at voice bots' capabilities for business.

Streamline internal business processes (HR, Business Analytics, etc.)

One of the most promising areas for programming teams is the creation of applications with voice bots that can provide reasoned business advice to managers and employees. The AI assistant can analyze an extensive amount of data about the state of the economy, take into account the complex context, previous experience of business, predict the consequences, considering the response actions of the environment.

voice bot solution — Image source: pexels

Further, voice bots can assist HR in recruiting and sourcing talent. Some programs can independently make initial contact with the candidates and draw up a list of the most qualified. Based on machine learning algorithms, such systems recommend specialists, as well as schedule interviews. Thanks to this, the recruiter has more time to communicate with qualified candidates who have passed the first stage of selection with a voice assistant.

For instance, by leveraging AI for natural language processing (NLP), natural language understanding (NLU), and machine learning (ML), Oracle offers a digital assistant that can truly span functional tasks across the company. It can be taught to work with HR, ERP, CRM and CX. The assistant understands context, identifies goals and intentions, examines user behavior and patterns to proactively automate routine tasks such as negotiating costs and rescheduling appointments on behalf of the user. Besides, it has built-in analytics, with the help of which companies can track assistant usage to get real-time insights into user behavior and application performance.

Manage marketing campaigns

Voice-enabled chatbots deeply personalize processes and give marketers an expanded insight into customers. They not only improve the quality of clients' service but also help in additional sales.

Chatterbots use a conversational approach to successfully interact with customers and create an emotional connection with them. Another important feature of voice assistants is to call people to action. Not everyone is immediately ready to make a purchase; some stop at a certain stage. Conversational AI, in turn, reminds a person of a product or service, offers to make a purchase, and selects alternative options upon request.

To illustrate, eBay's Google Assistant makes it easy to browse through the company's extensive online shopping service and provides customers with the most relevant results. The client just starts his searches with the words "Ok Google, tell eBay to find me…". After, his smart app asks him additional questions to narrow down the search; and once it finds the best deal, the voice bot asks the customer whether to send the results to his smartphone so that to complete the purchase. Indeed, it is a well-done marketing tool for boosting customer engagement.

Enhance customer support service

In our previous article "How chatbots can improve Customer Experience" you can find in detail five primary ways of leveraging AI-based text chatbots for enhancing your client's experience while interacting with your business.

Already, speech recognition technologies are helping companies to communicate with customers. Within time, the share of this segment in the information technology market will only grow. In particular, voice bots are used to checking the balance on a bank card, ordering food, building a route using the navigator, and simply answering on call centers.

In the sales industry, voice assistants make the operator's job much easier. They can advise the client on prices and characteristics, answer basic questions, place an order. Further, a voice assistant helps collect customer feedback, information about them and fills data in a CRM system.

A good-fit example is British retailer Marks & Spencer, which, with the help of a virtual assistant, decreased the average time of resolving a user request by 10 seconds. The app converts speech to text using a combination of programmable voice and speech recognition features and uses AI to route calls to the correct department or present the customer with appropriate self-service options.

Develop new startups and IT projects

The voice-enabled bots give impetus to the development of new business areas for startups. For example, a restaurant chain could release a recipe app based on a database of millions of previously prepared dishes that guides an amateur chef in cooking.

In the near future we will communicate more closely with voice assistants in various fields. Their vocabulary will grow, and so will the recognition of queries. Thus, this is a good time to think about implementing a virtual assistant in your company.

Key benefits of voice bots

Modern voice assistants give the business-specific benefits:

Reducing the cost of maintaining the staff. For example, chatterbot can substitute first-line operators answering the most basic questions. It frees employees from routine, even machine-like work, giving them the opportunity to connect to solving more complex problems.
More efficiently collecting data about users and their needs. All statistics on calls are automatically recorded and do not depend on the conscientiousness of a particular employee.
Appropriate communication. The bot can be given any tonality and pitch of voice, make it male or female so that the client feels as comfortable as possible in communication.
Faster problem-solving. One voice bot can simultaneously talk to hundreds of customers. In addition, users do not waste time waiting for a response. Accordingly, customer loyalty to the brand and the quality of services increase.
Higher conversion. A \ B testing of voice bot determines which model of dialogue gives the highest conversion in calls. That is, efficiently leading the client to the target action (buying, recalling, providing information, confirming the recording, etc).

How to choose a voice bot solution?

Use cases

Choosing a voice bot is like hiring an employee – you first need to determine what it will do. Whether the bot is aimed to perform routine tasks (cold sales, reminders, polls), or create deals for new requests, or help in internal business processes. After you can get the answer if you need to create a voice AI bot from scratch, or it's better to use a ready-made solution. Most often, businesses turn to smart IVR technology (interactive voice responses) with the functionality of pre-recorded phrases or real-time speech synthesis. Especially, when the talk is about a pilot project.

Price

Depending on the functions and use case of your voice AI bot, the price for the solution would vary. Also, consider whether this work turns to freelancers or a specialized agency where the cost would be higher (however, here you would be guaranteed the quality and further support of experts). To continue, integration with backend systems (CRM, payment options, e-mail marketing systems, etc.) would raise the overall cost.

The resources of NLU (Natural Language Understanding)

Determine if NLU capabilities are needed for your artificial intelligence voice business. Although the cost of integration with external NLP services (for example, Api.ai or IBM Watson) is enough time-consuming and expensive service, however, the AI's ability to understand natural language would be a starting point for businesses to make a breakthrough in voice assistants.

Deployment

In case you choose to create your custom bot, it may take the company from 3 to 6 months to develop. With a ready-made solution, the deployment would be faster several times. There are services where they offer to independently configure and run a voice bot in a quick manner. However, it is not always a resolution. It is better to overpay and take the time to entrust the work to professionals than to get a fast but unproductive project. After deployment, bots require minimal training, which reduces the time between tuning and increasing productivity, compared to employee training, etc. The voice robot easily takes repetitive tasks and speeds up the whole business activities and more importantly it is the long-term solution.

Best practices of voice bot development

Using a voice bot because it's trendy will not get you significant results. But if conversational AI technology can be a viable addition to your brand strategy, then you'll be able to make great use of it. The major focus is on being crystal clear about what you want to achieve by using a voice bot. Thus, we recommend the next practices:

Set realistic goals

Measurable goals are the foundation to develop a successful voice strategy for your bot. Without them, it's impossible to know if your efforts make a difference. It matters if it's about generating more sales, having better customer relations, creating more brand awareness, or helping client support.

Define your target audience and understand their needs

Improving customer experience is the first reason most companies are deploying a voice bot. You need to understand who your customers are. This will allow you to create relevant conversation flows, including answers to frequently asked questions and special offers.

Choose the right platform for your needs

There are many conversational AI platform providers that offer APIs, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Do your research before choosing a platform.

Constantly test

Invest in testing to avoid annoying mistakes. Bot KPIs are an important part of testing and managing bots. Paying close attention to user behavior can help identify unintended chatbot behavior and improve its functionality.

Does your business need voice technology?

Almost any company, whose business involves regular contacts with customers for typical requests, can be interested in the implementation of talkbots. It can be telecommunication companies, financial, insurance, e-commerce organizations, retailers, etc.

The correct approach during implementation will help build the process even where such communication channels have not been used before. Here are just a few of the tasks that the team of FreySoft can help you achieve with implementing conversational AI technology:

Marketing tasks

update and segment the customer base;
inform customers about promotions, discounts, special offers;
invite clients to upcoming online and offline events;
conduct surveys.

Customer service

collect client requests, appeals, complaints;
organize communication with the service center;
control the quality of service.

Sales and lead generation

make "cold calls" on the base;
process the received information and transfer leads to sales managers;
actualize the needs and requests of customers.

Being open to adjusting your business goals, focusing on growth, and turning to FreySoft is a great place to start. Tell us what voice bot you need for, and we will help to make it real.

FAQ: Voice AI Technology

What is a Voice Bot?

A voice bot is artificial intelligence software that understands and responds to user requests. It helps automate processes in various areas such as HR, logistics, banking, retail, and others. Typically, a bot can collect and process user feedback, report order status, remind you of payments, request and update data, offer products, and even close deals.

How do Voice Bots work?

The general steps of how the voice AI bot works:
1. Voice recognition: a human talks to a bot which, in turn, sends the input into the cloud to recognize the speech.
2. Decoding the message: audio is transferred into text form and due to NLP, the requests and intentions of the client are determined.
3. Search for the necessary answer (in the given script) or action.
4. Generate response: the AI engines convert text to speech and deliver it to the client.
5. The bot remembers and records all information received from the client.

How do you make a voice bot?

For creating a voice AI bot, you need to turn to a voice bot development company that specializes in a complex of speech technologies. In particular, the expertise includes accurate voice synthesis, speech recognition technology, and platforms of natural language understanding (NLU). Note, the AI engineers can add any functionality listed above, integrate it with different systems and teach many scenarios of user interaction.