The Elements of Voice First Style

Chapter 25. The Elements of Voice First Success

Like any other tool, a voicebot is successful only to the extent that it solves a user’s problem or delivers a utility that the user seeks to extract from it.

However, knowing exactly whether or not a user’s problem has been solved or if the user was able to enjoy the value they sought in the voicebot is often difficult. Instead, it is far easier to assess how a voicebot is performing in the aggregate by tracking a few key behaviors and outcomes.

The following sections are a list of metrics that collectively measure the effectiveness of a voicebot. Note that the exact meaning of many of these metrics is seldom obvious. Such meaning often needs to be negotiated with multiple stakeholders. For instance, when should we say that a user has “abandoned” a voicebot session? When should we say they have “completed a task”? And what is a “task” in the first place? Unless these terms are defined clearly, identifying points of success and failure will be difficult, and the conversations about what to do to improve the voicebot (its usability, its effectiveness, etc.) will be frustratingly elusive.

Abandonment Rate

The abandonment rate refers to the proportion of sessions where users abandoned the voicebot before completing any task. For instance, if a voicebot offers the user the ability to hear information about restaurant hours, nearest location, and the special on the menu that day, and the user does not pick any of the options and simply ...