Podcast – Using Voice Technology To Create A Better Experience – Concinnity

Smart assistants are everywhere now — in things like lightbulbs, speakers, headphones, and mobile devices. As people have begun to embrace and experiment with all that voice technology has to offer to their daily lives, the need for custom solutions to create a better human experience has come with it. That’s where this episode’s guests come in.

On this episode of the Survive & Thrive podcast, Jennifer is joined by Lisa Insley and Jason Fields. Lisa is a partner and expert in helping clients create a more compelling human experience at Concinnity while Jason is the chief strategy officer at Voicify. They talk about how the use of voice technology has boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as why brands should begin considering services like Voicify to not only embrace it but to create engaging experiences for their customers.

Act 1: Voicify

Introduction of Lisa and Jason (1:31)

Jennifer introduces this week’s two guests, Lisa Insley and Jason Fields, allowing them to touch on their backgrounds and experience.

What is Voicify? (4:44)

As Jason notes, Voicify is effectively just a content management system for smart speakers. It allows brands and businesses to create engaging conversation-based apps and customize their voice app to offer a more engaging customer experience. Jennifer explains how the Survive and Thrive podcast employs the service to be more engaging for users.

Pre-COVID and personal growth (7:35)

Jennifer talks to Jason about how his life looked before the COVID-19 pandemic and how it changed along the way. For Jason, it was that forced time of reflection that helped him discover new priorities.

Act 2: Getting used to voice technology and its benefits

Transitioning during a crisis (11:14)

Before the pandemic hit, Jason and his team had several exciting plans lined up, but that all changed in March. Jason talks about how the company made that transition as well as the importance of giving everyone — employees and clients — some time to breathe and collect themselves.

Should you be using Voicify? (14:28)

With the emergence of smartphones and smart speakers pairing with lockdown, more people than ever are engaging in some type of audio experience. While the growing interest in voice technology is one compelling reason for businesses to embrace it, Jason offers the logic behind using a service like Voicify to get started right now.

Combatting people’s hesitancy to adopt new technology (19:06)

Not everyone readily embraces new technology, especially when it’s still emerging. But Jason and Lisa explain why those uneasy to adopt voice solutions should reconsider.

Where should you integrate voice? (23:22)

As Jason notes, too many brands aren’t thinking about all the touchpoints they have with their customer base. He gives the roadmap for deciding which processes would be enhanced by using voice.

Act 3: The impact COVID has had on voice technology

How COVID has impacted voice technology (25:31)

As Jason points out, the growth of voice comes from a place of comfort. As more people have bought devices with smart assistants built in, the comfort level has grown along with it. People are now engaging with their smart speakers more than ever before, partially due to being locked in their homes from the pandemic.

Is voice the future of search (27:51)

Jennifer shares a story of a brand truly embracing voice and going beyond just the minimum to actually provide a service for their users. Now instead of having to search through the internet via their phones, users can find the information quickly and easily and are reminded of the company that helped them do it.

Why people became motivated to use voice technology (31:08)

The novelty of smart assistants has worn off thanks to people being at home during lockdown. Jason believes parents trying to manage children, work, and other tasks while at home is what started the true embracing and experimenting with smart assistants to find their full value.

Personal privacy (32:49)

There’s a concern about personal privacy. Jason shares some examples of brands that are using custom smart assistants to better manage those privacy concerns. However, Jason also believes the fact platforms are already collecting so much data on users should make people rethink their privacy concerns.

Risk being left behind (35:09)

As Jason and Lisa point out, with people using smart assistants more often and voice SEO becoming a thing, voice apps are clearly going to become a big part of the market sooner or later. For those brands not embracing the technology now, they stand to get left behind.

Act 4: Surviving and thriving

Biggest surprises (38:09)

The pandemic was such a massive transition for so many people. As Jason reflects on the last year, he thinks the chance for introspection and the recognition of where time is being spent has been a surprising silver lining to the pandemic.

Advice to survive and thrive (39:48)

In his parting words, Jason says companies need to be proactive about change during a crisis. He believes those businesses that aren’t planning for the changing landscape won’t survive long enough to see it.

Voice technology is quickly emerging and it’s here to stay, even if you don’t embrace it now — (37:30)

Jason

“If you’re not ready to do offense, start playing defense. We know that discoverability is going to get better, we know that voice SEO is going to be a thing — all of the content in your voice app is going to be indexed and the assistants are going to know where to start pushing people downstream. Google, obviously, made a lot of money on it with their search product. I’m not sure why anyone thinks it’s going to be different with voice.”

The biggest personal surprise from the last year — (38:37)

Jason

“I think it would just be the recognition of how much time is in a day, and where it was being spent versus where I wanted it to be spent . . . If I can find a silver lining it’s that I did have the opportunity, because of the pandemic, to think a little more introspectively about what is meaningful.”