As the conversational economy grows and intertwines within businesses, it becomes more and more clear that this won’t be an entirely easy path. There are many hurdles that exist along this road, many related to the technology itself, including:
- Computational resources
- The right infrastructure needed to support these resources
- The promise of 5G providing a breakthrough in edge computing
- Privacy issues preventing the sharing of information needed to verify a person’s identity.
However, it doesn’t stop there. Many of these hurdles are societal. Businesses now face a multi-generational customer base, each with varying levels of expectations and spending power, and they are expected to provide an excellent customer service experience regardless. Whether their customers are members of the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, or Millennials – each generation has its own set of specific tastes, needs, and capabilities when using technology – and the same will hold true with evolving voice technologies. To avoid abandoning a large segment of customers, businesses must face the challenges of delivering a customer’s preferred experience no matter their generation.
Despite these hurdles, organizations are increasingly implementing voice technology to gain a competitive advantage. Forrester research shows a correlation between customer experience and stock performance, and a Walker study indicated that customer experience will become more important as a key brand differentiator than even price or product.
For example, a large bank that works with Pindrop has a high net worth client base because many of their clients have reached retirement. As a long-term growth strategy, this bank is actively improving their customer experience with voice technology in hopes of drawing in their clients’ children and grandchildren. These efforts to streamline processes using voice technology may create a seamless customer experience but it also introduces security risks that can result in data breaches that negatively impact a company’s revenue and reputation.
As with many technological advances, security is sadly often an afterthought. As more businesses join the conversational economy to remain at the forefront of their industries, it becomes more important to ensure that security is incorporated right from the beginning in the design and deployment of voice technology.
To learn more about the hurdles associated with the growing conversational economy, download our full Voice Intelligence Report here.
