The next driving force in customer activation
Nowadays, customers are bombarded with an endless number of messages from brands at every angle – TV, emails, telemarketers. So it comes as no surprise that over time, the effectiveness of marketing tactics such as email has fallen drastically to around 1.9% on average across all industries. This is not only with email – it’s being mirrored across all forms of communication including direct mail, texts, and telemarketing. You can’t help but wonder as a business why getting your customer to take action is becoming more and more difficult, let alone getting your customers’ attention. Voice is the next frontier in driving your customer actions.
Incorporating voice messaging into your existing marketing tactics can help you cut through to your customers more than any other channel. It is estimated that by 2020, 30% of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen – so the world is moving towards a voice-centric future.
The key here however is not using voice calls independently, but in combination with other channels that are currently part of your marketing strategy. Interactive voice calls can help elevate the way you communicate with your customers, creating a more personalised feel with a clearer message.
Let’s be honest, automated voice calls usually don’t have the best reputation and some assume that voice is the least effective tactic. The good news however is that the data shows voice can – and does – make a difference.
How does the personalisation of voice impact the customer experience? Looking at research…
After an analysis of more than 100 million customer interactions, we’ve learned that voice is great, however the main takeaway is how you use voice in your communications. In partnership with YouGov, we’ve conducted two online surveys of over 2,000 consumer and have interested results. Study results concluded that people preferred automated human voices over robotic ones as it was more personalised. It was also preferred over telemarketing as customers generally don’t like to be pestered with phone-calls, and with voice messaging, could choose how long they wanted the interaction to last.
Another key finding is in regards to being contacting by service providers such as a banks, insurance or utility companies. The survey showed that the number one reason respondents would want to speak to a company was to get a question answered quickly. By using a variety of automated voice calls including different gendered voices and localised dialects, customer segments could be targeted better, at a quicker pace, with significantly lower cost than other methods. Overall, the report confirmed that voice calls combined with personalisation created the best results.
Click here to read the full YouGov Voice Report.
How do these results compare with other marketing communication channels?
Looking at email, as a customer you are unlikely to get a response right away, and often the email can be confusing, with miscommunication and lack of clarity largely affecting the customer experience. Telemarketing may seem like the obvious choice, however you’re probably going to spend an incredibly high amount to have good customer support, especially if it is needed 24/7. Especially with certain industries like banking and insurance, which can be a sensitive subject for many customers, it can often create tension and stress when having to speak to a customer service representative. Voice messaging allows you to bring the best of both worlds. A personalised human voice to create familiarity with your customer while also taking the pressure off the customer to have to speak with a person regarding personal matters that can be uncomfortable (such as late or missed payments).
While voice in the context of a one way conversation is grabbing many of the headlines, it’s important to note that consumers are clearly also interested in having more two way interaction with brands. Marketers will need to understand the most effective way of communicating using voice and the most appropriate uses of that channel. Highly effective marketing strategies can help eliminate enduring stigmas and reinvent our perception of automated calls to drive a significantly enhanced experience for consumers.
