How can voice recognition benefit businesses?

Voice recognition and computerised speech have made significant advances in recent years to the extent that we have reached a point where we can have a reasonable standard of conversational interaction with many consumer appliances.


Consumers today can’t get enough of voice assistant home devices, such as Google Home and Amazon Echo, both of which have advanced natural language understanding (NLU) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) capabilities, enabling devices to recognize intent and to converse with expression, rather than sounding like Stephen Hawking.
That is excellent news for businesses. They can harness the power that voice search can offer to increase their sales. However, in order to do so, businesses must develop an effective plan to leverage the opportunities afforded by speech and voice automation.


Then, they must incorporate it into their digital transformation strategies. If companies fail to do this, they will be automatically at a disadvantage in the marketplace.
Voice search is beginning to change the way in which customers search for brands and interact with them. If brands fail to adopt a voice strategy, they will start losing out to their competitors.

The Growth of Voice Search

The idea of voice search dates back to 1950's. However, the last couple of years has seen huge progress and development. Google Home and Amazon Echo are just two of the most cutting-edge devices.

They are highly sophisticated, too. Google has recently increased the accuracy rate of its word recognition to more than 90 percent. This means that interacting with devices becomes easier than ever.

In the United States alone, there are more than 45 million voice search devices. Experts have predicted people will conduct half of their Internet searches via voice search by 2020. This means companies have to adapt to this technology to stay visible in the marketplace.

It is clear that businesses need to act, but how can voice search actually benefit companies?

An Improved Customer Experience

While adopting voice search as a digital transformation strategy helps companies stay relevant, it also helps to improve customer experiences.

Voice search allows for a more optimised and unique experience for customers. It increases brand loyalty and fosters positive relationships. Google Assistant and Alexa are both capable of differentiating between different voices. Both now allow you to buy products and services with just your voice.

This means that they can gain valuable insights into different users. The result is more personalized content and messages for an even better customer experience.

Since voice technology also makes interacting with brands seamless and natural, loyalty and retention are encouraged.
An example of a company that has managed to incorporate voice search successfully into its strategy is Whirlpool.

This brand has joined with Amazon in creating voice-activated, intelligent appliances that can talk to customers. When a fridge can advise you on which ingredients you should buy, it sets that brand ahead of the crowd.


Voice search holds many possibilities that are not yet explored fully

However, it appears evident that companies adopting voice search in their digital transformation strategies will continue to prosper at an ever increasing rate.

Whenever a voice assistant supplies a response, users can access the website from which the voice assistant got the answer. When businesses adopt a successful voice-optimised SEO strategy, they can see a huge boost in their website traffic.

Inspiring Examples from The Biggest Brands

As you might expect, the biggest brands in the marketplace are already getting on board with voice search technology. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest and best examples out there:

  • Domino’s: The famous pizza brand allows customers to order with no need to use their computers or pick up their phones.

  • Patron Tequila: Consumers are able to access cocktail recipes through voice searches that are personalised to their preferences.

  • PayPal: People with an account are able to use Siri’s voice technology to send family, friends or businesses money.

  • Nestlé: This brand has devised a skill that offers spoken cooking instructions to home users in the kitchen.

  • Tide: This detergent brand can provide voice advice about how to remove a wide range of stains.

  • Campbell’s: This brand has created a skill that allows consumers to choose the right recipe for them and, then, cook it.

With the growth of voice search technology, all businesses will need to integrate it into their digital transformation strategy. There are numerous benefits for both consumers and companies.

Customers can benefit through the enhanced experience they can enjoy thanks to the personalisation of voice search. Meanwhile, brands can stay competitive and increase brand awareness by adopting the latest technology.

By increasing their brand awareness, voice search can increase brand conversion rates. The result is more sales, more revenue, and more profit overall – something all businesses want to achieve.

The iCentric Agency specialize in advising, developing and supporting digital transformation software solutions for aspiring businesses.


You can read more about us at icentricagency.com and more about our success stories at https://icentricagency.com/stories