The Elements of Voice First Style

Chapter 21. Laying Out the Foundations

Far too often, voicebots are conceived by the businesses that deploy them as little more than a necessary evil. After all, common wisdom goes that users will always prefer to speak to and interact with a human being instead of a machine, so forcing a user to endure an automated assistant is almost by definition viewed as an imposition to the user—especially a user who bothered to reach out to you seeking your business!

But designing voicebots with this “necessary evil” conception in mind almost invariably results in voicebots that are indeed an imposition on those who have to endure them. In cases where the user is expecting to speak with a human—and since the user is going to wince and whine as soon as they realize that they have to speak with a voicebot—the best that can be expected from the voiceobt designer is to mitigate damage and hope for the best.

But more harmful than the mediocre voicebots that such a view of voicebot design and development engender are the missed golden opportunities to turn voicebots into branding assets and marketing opportunities.

In this chapter, we outline what it takes to begin thinking about designing voicebots with the goal of turning an interaction with a voicebot into an opportunity-enablement channel.

Bring Together All the Key Players

Whether you are building a house, a car, or a voicebot, truly intelligent design begins with collecting information from those with the key pieces of knowledge needed ...