Voice Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Selling Online – Make it Easy For Your Customers to Reach You With Google Voice

Too many online sellers want to remain anonymous and do business without having to have any contact with the buyer. That’s just not going to work and if you don’t build relationships with your customers they may buy from you once, then never again. Building an online business means being accessible when the potential buyers have questions. Ignoring them and leaving their questions unanswered will only make them find another company to do business with.

I had a telephone call today from a gentleman in another country wanting to purchase some of my items in bulk. He called me on my business phone and we worked out a deal. This man told me he hates doing business via email because he can’t type well and would rather have a conversation face to face or on the phone. I agree. Although I do most of my correspondence via email, I would rather talk to my customers and find out who they are and what they really need. I can make recommendations that help my customers get exactly the products that will work for them and maybe upsell them a related product they didn’t know we carry.

Now, with that said, you don’t want to give out your home telephone number and have people calling at all hours of the night and day. You need a separate business telephone number and I recommend you get a Google Voice account. It is a free service from Google that you can sign up for. Google Voice issues you a telephone number in an area code that you choose and you get free voice mail with your account. You can set the call forwarding so that it rings at your home, your work or cell phone. There are a lot of features offered with this product but I like the voice mail feature the best.

When callers leave voice messages for you, Google Voice translates them and you can view them on your computer screen or cell phone like a text message. I have found that the translation service is pretty accurate considering a computer is doing the translating instead of a human being. I have even called my own Google Voice account to record myself when I had an idea I didn’t want to forget. When I get back to the office my voice recording is all typed out for me. You can even email the message to another person if you need to.

There is no reason not to have a business telephone number if you are selling online. The call you miss may be money gone forever.

Voice Technology Is The Future – Google Assistant

Google recently demoed their Assistant to make a phone call to help book a haircut appointment. When the conversation was being heard, the discussion sounded just like two people talking together, while in fact online there wasn’t a live person, but an ‘AI powered Assistant’ that sounded pretty much like talking to a real person. Besides the “hmm” and “m-hmmm” that a live person would do when in a conversation, it ended up booking an appointment for the Customer who had called in.

Like some, of its ‘friends’ Siri, Cortana, Alexa, Google Assistant can also be used to help support a particular business process. The only upgrade that it had was using its Duplex Technology capability and perform a task with the same sounding effort as a human being. Here the test was to check if Google Assistant could be used to perform different tasks, something like book an appointment at a salon or restaurant however for a business there are a lot of things that will be considered, this also includes the Security Policies for using Robots to do a Human’s job.

Google Assistant is a virtual companion and is available on Android phones and tablets running Android 5.0 or higher, on iOS devices via a downloadable app, and on certain Chromebooks and home speaker products. With Android and other Google devices, Assistant can typically be summoned via a simple voice command or by pressing and holding the Home key on your device.

Below are some of the basic functions that can be performed simply by saying “OK Google..( and your query )”

Notes & Reminders

If you need to take down a note, one can simply open Assistant by saying “OK Google..” and say “make a note to self”. You can even opt to have the note sent as an email to your own address via Gmail. Google Assistant can act as your secretary and compile a list of reminders, to-do tasks, or notes and then send this list as an email. It can even send the list to multiple people or post it into apps like Slack, Evernote or Trello.

As an example Assistant can set a reminder for a specific time and day just by saying “OK Google… Remind me to call John on Monday at noon,” One can set recurring reminders by adding the word “every” into the spoken command ( e.g., “Remind me to check the inventory every Thursday at 1:00 ). In addition to Reminders, there is also a command “Remember that the meeting is at 4:00 every Thursday”

If you need to recall the information, one can just say, “OK Google..what did I tell you about..?” followed by the subject “the inventory” or whatever the case may be.

Calendar

You can create a calendar event by telling the Assistant “add to my calendar” followed by the event’s name, date and time. You can also ask Assistant something like “When’s my next appointment?” or “What’s on my calendar for next Monday?” Apple users can also link Assistant to their iPhone’s calendar by setting up Google’s IFTTT applet for integrating Apple Calendar with Google Home and then use the command “Add to my iOS calendar” followed by the event’s title, date, and time.

Communication & Messaging

If you need to make a phone call, Google Assistant can act as your operator. One can ask it to call any publicly listed business or any person in their contacts by specifying “mobile” or “work” and even include “on speakerphone” in case you need them all to be on a speakerphone.

Google Assistant can understand “OK Google..text..” followed by the contact’s name and the message. It will confirm if it got everything right and then ask if you want to send the message. Assistant makes it easy to find emails within Gmail too, simply ask it to “find my emails from” a particular contact or to “find my emails about” a specific subject, and it’ll pop up results.

The Assistant will also provide functionality to link LinkedIn to Assistant and then let you write a post speaking it aloud.

Functions & Settings For The Phone

Google Assistant can help get around your Android phone as well, for example, if you are instructing it to open any app or website or even ask it to search within an app. Something, like increasing or decreasing the volume of music playing, or completely asking the Assistant to mute the phone, can also be done hands-free.

Additional Useful Tools

One can get detailed information on traffic before they head out just by asking Assistant “what the traffic is like on the way to work” or “how long it’ll take to get to a location” and it will be able to tell you the distance and time that will be taken to reach the destination. Just like a human being, Google Assistant can occasionally get a little talkative too. If you want to get info from Assistant without having it talk out loud every time, one can either silence their phone’s media volume.

Ups & Downs

This voice-based technology is surely a game changer for not only individuals but even businesses alike. However, unlike any other technological innovation, this too has its ups & downs and adds in its own security risks. This will include chances of it being misused too, however, if there are restrictions implied towards its use for supporting businesses, it will need rigorous testing, and continuous innovation to make sure it is able to keep up with the security authentication and privacy policies to avoid any technical vulnerabilities affecting the consumer or business.

Originally Published on https://www.globaltechinsights.com/voice-technology-is-the-future-google-assistant/

How to Optimize Your Website for Voice Search

Voice Search Trends: Is Your Business Ready?

When Google launched the Voice Search app for the iPhone in 2008, it was far from perfect. Over the years, speak-activated technology has become much more accurate and human-like. Stats show that Google’s English recognition accuracy rate is now over 95%.

People want instant solutions when they’re searching for something online.

While typing a query into a search bar is quick, simply speaking into your device and getting the same results is even quicker. On average, a person can type around 40 words per minute and speak around 150 words per minute.

To try a spoken search, you can activate your phone’s assistant (Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, for example). Or, try it online: click on the microphone icon to the right of the Google search bar, to the left of the magnifying glass.

You’ll be prompted to “Speak now” and you’ll see the results come up after you’ve made your request.

What Voice Search Means for your Business

If you’re a small business owner, it’s a good idea to start thinking of ways to optimize your website for voice search.

Many consumers already use it to find what they’re looking for and according to ComScore, 50% of searches will be performed this way by 2020.

Here’s how to make it work for your business:

Think phrases, not keywords. When we type something into the search bar, we tend to keep it short, like “Canada Food Guide fruit servings.”

However, when we talk to a device, we use a conversational tone, so it would be more like “How many servings of fruit each day does the Canada Food Guide recommend?” Before optimizing your site, research longtail keywords that someone might use to find your products or services.

Stay local. Mobile voice-related searches are three times more likely to be locally based. Use your location with keywords in your site content, and don’t forget to keep your Google My Business page updated.

If you have accolades or awards, include those too – users are often searching for the “best of” or “top” products or services in the area.

Be overly informative. A virtual assistant pulls information from the Internet, so you want to make sure there’s lots of it to be found.

Keep your website, Google My Business, Yelp and other third-party sites updated with things like your contact info, hours of operation, location and menu.

However, that’s just the basics. Dive even deeper – does your business accept American Express? Does your boutique sell clothing by local designers? Is your business a good place to take kids, pets or a date?

The more you can put out there, the more questions you can answer. Creating a FAQ page is a great way to provide both typers and talkers with relevant info.

Speed up. Your mobile page load time matters. The average spoken search results page loads almost twice as fast as a web page, so you’ll have to keep up if you want to get noticed.

Google also includes page speed as a ranking factor, so faster is always better. Check your site’s speed.

It’s going to become more and more relevant – and necessary – to make it easy for customers to “talk” to your business. Instead of waiting for your competitors to catch up and outrun you, start working on optimizing your site now.