23 Nov What is a Voicebot?

Within a company, customer relations are of the utmost importance since they are one of the keys to customer satisfaction. Customers' needs are becoming more and more numerous and new tools are needed to better satisfy them.

Among these tools are voicebots, which are voice assistants that are part of the indispensable tools to better manage customer relations. We are going to make you discover what a voicebot is, how it works and the interest that a company has to adapt such a tool nowadays.

To better understand what a voicebot means, we will try to bring some clarifications on this tool while mentioning what differentiates it from other virtual conversational agents.

What does Voicebot mean?

It can be defined as a robot with the ability to interact with users by voice.

A voicebot relies on artificial intelligence, which is a technology that makes it easier for robots to understand human language.

A voicebot is therefore a tool that can understand, interpret and analyze user requests while answering them in a natural language.

Today, many voicebots are developed to facilitate customer relationship management within companies.

The advent of the first voicebots dates back to 1961, when IBM launched Shoebox, a computer with a digital voice recognition facility.

It is a technology that was later transformed in the 1970s before reappearing with the Simon smartphone, released in 1993 by IBM.

From that moment on, intelligent conversational agents were introduced to the market, allowing the conversion of the spoken word into the written word.

Since the 2000s, there has been a strong growth in voicebots thanks to companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple. Thus, with the iPhones 4S, we have seen the advent of Siri as a voice assistant.

Today, apart from Siri developed by Apple, we have very well known voicebots like Google Assistant from Google or Alexa, developed by Amazon.

These conversational agents are now part of many people's daily lives and are integrated into many objects such as smartphones, home appliances or even cars.

What differentiates a voicebot from other virtual conversational agents?

The Voicebot is different from other virtual conversational agents even if they all have the same purpose. We will therefore distinguish the Voicebot from the chatbot.

How is a voicebot different from a chatbot?

A voicebot and a chatbot do not work in the same way. The channel is different in the sense that a voicebot works only on a voice channel unlike a chatbot which is based on a written channel usually running on a web platform or an application.

Because of this fundamental difference, voicebot operation requires features such as speech recognition to transform the voice into a sequence of words, as well as speech synthesis to transmit an answer in spoken form.

How does a voicebot work?

A voicebot usually works by relying on conversational artificial intelligence to better understand the human language and the full meaning behind each word.

In a much more technical way, a voicebot manages to understand a user's request in natural language through voice recognition.

This understanding is achieved in the majority of cases, with an accuracy rate of up to 95%. When the user speaks, the system identifies his or her voice using the Voice Activity Detection (VAD) brick.

The sound is then transformed into text by an automatic speech recognition system, known as ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition).

These two mechanisms allow us to transcribe speech into written form.

The text is then analyzed by the artificial intelligence engine, which has the ability to understand the purpose of a user's call using the words that the user uses, just as a human being would.

To finish the process, the voicebot selects the answer to give to the user thanks to an engine that transforms the text into speech, while synthesizing it in oral form. The whole process described above takes less than a minute, which is very impressive.

What interest does a company have in using a voicebot for its customer relations?

The use of a voicebot by a company can be justified by several reasons that deserve to be mentioned.

The need to respond to new consumer needs

With a voicebot, a company can meet the new needs of consumers who are looking for independence and speed.

The use of a voicebot allows a company to make the consumer more autonomous by avoiding the frequent recourse to a classic customer service, thus allowing him to have quick answers without having to enter his request in more detail.

This is a time-saver for the consumer.

Also, a voicebot allows a company to help disabled consumers who have reading difficulties or who are unable to write.

Availability at all times

The voicebot is a tool that the consumer can use at any time. A customer can easily use a voicebot at any time of the day, so it is a tool that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In other words, the voicebot makes the traditional customer service department, which is usually obliged to keep opening and closing hours, a thing of the past.

Reducing the burden on customer service

The use of a voicebot within a company allows to decongest the customer service. This saves time for many customers who do not have to wait for a customer service agent to receive them so that they can ask their concern.

The voice assistant can therefore provide quick answers to most customer queries without any human intervention, thus enhancing customer satisfaction while improving the customer experience.

The development of a proximity with the customers

A voicebot allows to develop a certain proximity with the different customers of a company by personalizing the customer relationship.

Thanks to spontaneous voice exchanges, a touch of conviviality is added to the customer relationship, thus promoting the sharing and exchange of information between customers and the company.

Through speech recognition, the conversational assistant is able to format the speech according to the caller.

Thus, the answers are personalized according to whether the person is a man, a woman, a young person or an elderly person.

Automation of repetitive tasks

To increase customer service productivity, a voicebot can be used to automate certain repetitive operations, allowing humans to focus their energy on the most complex customer requests.

These human agents can therefore intervene only when really necessary, bringing added value to customers.

It is now obvious that voicebots are becoming more and more important for the daily life of companies thanks to their various functionalities.

The use of a voicebot offers a certain fluidity and celerity in the treatment of customer requests, thus saving time. Companies should therefore adopt them to boost their customer service while improving the customer experience.

Does a voicebot influence the natural referencing of a company that adopts it?

When asked if a company's implementation of a tool such as a voicebot influences SEO, the answer is yes.

We will see how the use of a voicebot is an asset for SEO.

Anticipation of real customer problems

As is often the case with the principle of SEO, you need to get an idea of what a user might ask by implementing a strategy that lists the questions most asked by users.

The voicebot thus allows to anticipate the customers' requests. Thus, the creation of a voicebot allows a reflection on the way in which the Internet users formulate their requests.

This is a question that is similar to that of natural referencing, also known as SEO. It is therefore necessary to be able to identify the relevant keywords.

Thinking about how to feed the keyword corpus is the same as improving SEO.

The addition of priority keywords responding to customer requests

The use of the voicebot leads customers to express their requests in natural language. Analyzing these different customer requests allows us to find new keywords.

Based on these new keywords, a company can create relevant content on its website with the aim of answering to a great extent the different problems faced by the customers.

Google's algorithms value relevant content, which will have a positive impact on the SEO strategy.

VocaBase, the ideal solution to acquire a voicebot that is highly beneficial to your company

We all agree that adopting a voicebot has many benefits for a company. However, there are some concerns about how to get such a tool.

You don't have to worry anymore, VocaBase is here to accompany you through the entire process. We will let you know why you should trust VocaBase to help you set up your voicebot.

A support available whatever your field of activity

VocaBase is able to support you regardless of the sector in which you operate. Whether you are in the insurance, banking, healthcare, telecommunications, or any other field, you can trust VocaBase's expertise to support you.

A wide variety of voicebots available

VocaBase can help you set up several types of voicebot depending on the needs you wish to cover.

Thus, you have the possibility to have a voicebot designed that will take care of the automatic reception, the management of appointments, the collection of debts, the management of access security or any other need that is specific to your company.

A choice of the solution that suits you best

With VocaBase, you have the choice between a custom solution or a ready-to-use solution. Thus, if you feel you have a specific need, the VocaBase development workshop can assist you by setting up a customized solution for your organization at a lower cost. This will take into account the particularities that you have mentioned.

On the other hand, if you wish, there are ready-to-use solutions with predefined contents and very advanced functionalities.

These solutions can be adopted in the banking sector, in the insurance field, in human resources management or in e-commerce.

Contact VocaBase now to start your project to set up a voicebot

Now that you know that VocaBase can accompany you in the project of setting up your voicebot, you just have to take the first step.

You can schedule an appointment online to easily discuss your project. During this consultation, you will only have to expose all your concerns and detail all the specifics of what you want to have as a solution for your company or your brand. Rest assured, you will benefit from an attentive listening that will surely lead to the start of your voicebot implementation project.

You will have the opportunity to join the many VocaBase customers who have already adopted solutions that simplify their lives and with which they are completely satisfied according to the various testimonials left on the VocaBase website.