What is the urgency of Voice?

Published in

Chatbots Magazine

5 min readJul 9, 2018

Ever since I became a voice evangelist and developer I regularly got feedback that what I shared wasn't enough to divert resources to a Voice project. Let’s amend that with this post.

Are you one of those believers who pesters their CEO or other types of executives with the pitch that Voice is the next big thing and “we” should get on board? Use this! Are you a CEO or executive? Pick one of the three arguments and get going!

The urgency of voice is summed up in three points:

Of course there are more reasons but if you don’t know, pick one of these. They work. Key is you pick the one that fits with who you are talking to. What is their trigger? What is important for them? Please add any new reasons for urgency in the comments.

Don’t miss out

Voice has an unprecedented adoption rate. It is faster than web and mobile. Over 50 million devices were sold in the first three years. People who use voice in at home increase usage almost two fold after the first week. It replaces other media usage like web-surfing, TV watching and listening to radio. 50% of search wil be done via voice according to Gartner.

Use the PR opportunity and claim voice first mover in your category

Similar to when the web and mobile started there will be many firsts in Voice. Use this by appealing to the media about what you are doing. Tell a good story. Create social video’s and behind the development stories.

Create a voice service that can go live within three weeks

When you use the fear of missing out argument, it is important that you take small yet smart steps. Most of you know how to do design sprints. That is the way. What is your most simple use case that will appeal to the audience, the media and doesn’t needs a business and tech redesign? What ever you come up will be ready in three weeks is good. Some ideas for you:

🍫 Are you a popular chocolate brand? “Create “Chocolate now”
🚂 Do you run trains? Create “When do i need to leave”?
✈️ Are you an airline? Create” Where is my luggage?”
🚘 Do you run a auto repair shop? Create “When is my next check up?”
🎓 Are you a school? Create “When is the next vacation?”
🚴 Are you a bike brand? Create “What is the cycling weather”
🌇 Are you the city government? Create “road works reporter”

Whatever you end up making. It will be your first step into adding the new channel of voice. The Conversational Channel Roadmap will give an insight into what may come next.

Bonus: It will enhance the innovative image of your organization.

Use the Fulcrum

The word fulcrum often needs explanation. I love it and use it too many times 8-) A fulcrum is the support about which a lever pivots. “Give me a lever long enough and I will move the earth” is what the ancient mathematician Archimedes supposedly said. He knew that the lever had to be put at the right fulcrum to actually move the earth. Voice is a fulcrum too.

Use Voice as a fulcrum for unparalleled customer centricity

All organizations today have a customer journey maps hanging on the wall. Many teams work on these to come up with ways to take away any blockades for the customer in the web or mobile channels. Many of these teams get lost in theory, in (other) departments that won’t move, in lack of focus. The organization loses much money this way.

Voice is the way to break through and get more out of these investments. Voice is the fulcrum to get clarity, focus and action in the teams. Start a Voice project and break down the silo’s. Voice demands customer centric and frictionless services. It is exciting for the teams to work on something new and fun. It will grow loyalty and intimacy with customers. Like the previous reason for urgency, what you do can be simple at first and be done within three weeks.

Go for the opportunity

This is for the those who dare. Do you? Does your organization? Voice commerce is predicted to be over $40 billion in the US and the UK by 2022. Currently it is a blue ocean with two whales: Amazon and Google. How about you go for a piece of that?

Own your category

Claim to be the owner of voice commerce in your category. Commit to develop anything your customer expects and deliver smartly. It is not that hard actually. It requires focus and resources, thats all. If it really will be $40 billion in 4 years I will settle with 1%. How about you? That is 400 million and enough resources to build all the customer wants and make a profit.

Sell the shovels

The other opportunity is the services industry which supports this new channel. Startups are already creating better tools than the voice service behemoths Amazon and Google. Also voice development is 90% design and 10% development. You can service organizations with that design work. Several agencies offer voice services yet there is lots of space in this new service market. Especially with the supposed $40 billion commerce number at play. Like the goldrush in 1849. Don’t bet on the gold, bet on the tools needed to find the gold and sell shovels and the jeans. It did Levi’s good.

It’s is exciting to be in the Voice industry.
It’s is exciting to create Voice services.
It is exciting to use Voice services.

Let’s get going. Pick a reason and pitch it to your boss.

I promise you, it will be worth it!

Maarten Lens-FitzGerald