Smart Voice Systems
I spoke with Andreas Cooper from Smart Voice Systems New Zealand for Episodes 21 and 22 of the Sound In Marketing Podcast. We talked about merging old and new technology to make a smoother transition for the hospitality industry, how the Volara software they use is unique, and Smart Voice Systems partnerships with hotels to help educate and introduce voice technology; increasing revenue as well as the guests’ experience.
We discussed focusing on subtle and sincere voice marketing instead of a “sell”, creating community and a “personality” within voice marketing, customized voicing for brands (it’s not just about Alexa and Siri voicing anymore), the limitations on creativity with hospitality voice systems, and future thoughts on voice in hospitality as integrations and data progresses.
Andreas and I both believe that with a small amount of vision, there is a massive opportunity for creating some very unique and profitable integrations in voice technology within the hospitality industry. Being in New Zealand, this technology hasn’t quite “hit” yet but watching the trends of the U.S. and Europe, he knows it’s coming. So he’s preparing now talking to all the hotels he can and educating them on the possibilities that could be theirs.
Volara Software with Alexa Hardware
Andreas integrates the software Volara into the Alexa hardware that he shops to hoteliers. With this software, Smart Voice Systems can work with a hotel or an Airbnb and create custom messages to better serve their guests. This can be anything from asking the hotel for a towel to a recommendation for the best cocktail. These voice messages can be anything the hotel desires. Smart Voice Systems sits down with the hotels and asks them what is it that they want to get out of these speakers? Is it to drive revenue or is to improve operational efficiency? Once the hotel decides the mission, the sky’s the limit.
Volara is a (patent pending) accuracy engine. It can add in hundreds of variations of the exact same question (dialects and slang included). If it can’t interpret, it throws out a suggested response. This software is also completely secure. At the end of the day, there are no personal details linked or logged to any command or request you make. The only thing Amazon sees is the room number.
Whatever the hotel wants to promote or push, it can be programmed within minutes. Customization to the enth degree.
Andreas Cooper
Hesitation to the New
Accuracy and performance is increasing drastically but people are still apprehensive because it’s still “different”. The more it becomes common place in a less intimidating way, people will figure it out. It grows on us. Some guests don’t care for it and some hotels don’t understand it and so it’s a slower rate of adoption. But what if we were to merge the old with the new?
There is now an Amazon Alexa device with a clock (see affiliate link). Smart Voice Systems is encouraging hotels to replace their old and broken alarm clocks with a smart clock. This wouldn’t change the hotel’s entire infrastructure, it would just incorporate an element of extra versatility and bring them one step up in their technology progression.
Smart speaker clocks can help put a new spin on an old face.
Airbnb
For AirBnB, it’s just as important to incorporate voice solutions. Hosts want to remove as much pain and work in hosting as possible. With voice solutions, they can program all of the information guests may need into the system like “what is the wifi code, how do you turn on the dishwasher or stove.” That way the host isn’t being asked simple questions every hour of the day and the guest can go about their trip that much more smoothly.
What Could Be and Is Already
There are a lot of absolutely amazing things in the horizon. But we have to make ourselves available to it. We don’t want to repeat the mistake of Blockbuster when they had the opportunity to buy Netflix for 50 million dollars.
The hotel industry is a traditionally slow moving industry. So, according to Andreas, to come in with new technology means you have to “break down walls and paint people pictures”. With a lot of hotels they need to know what the benefit is. Is it a necessity? Can it drive revenue? Can it help efficiency?
Marketing Has To Be Subtle
People know when they are being sold to and they’re tired of it. We all skip ads when we can, or if we can’t, we leave the room to get a drink or do something while it runs its course. So in a hotel experience, wouldn’t they skip the ad when possible too?
But what if we could be more creative? Turn the “sell” into a service?
A guest has just checked in. Maybe they are done with their conference for the day or they’re just winding down for the night. It’s a new town. They don’t know anyone or any good places for a drink. They see the smart speaker on the end table. They ask “Alexa, where can I get a drink?” Alexa suggests the hotel bar (why? Because the hotel has programmed it to say as such. Cha-ching). Alexa continues on and suggests a steakhouse down the street where they can get a free drink if they say Alexa sent them. Here they can partner with local community and sell ad spots to those companies (yet another cha-ching). The hotel wins and so do those partnering with them.
This is an example of a trackable transaction. You can measure that effectiveness easily. It is revenue building and by “serving” the guest, you’ve also created a positive experience.
Celebrity Voicing
As I’ve mentioned before, celebrities voicing the brand through voice assistance technology is something new that companies have been playing with. Imagine if you heard David Attenborough coming through your hotel’s smart speaker, or a local sports team giving you sporting stats. Aligning yourself with a celebrity could help your brand become more noticable and stand out. People “know” that voice and now they’ve attached you and your brand to that voice as well.
The hotel industry hasn’t quite reached an inspiringly creative stage of marketing in the sound marketing space yet. They’re primarily focused on assistance on services and creating connections with local businesses and that’s perfectly fine; for now. Some ways that Andreas and I brainstormed for “softer” creative ideas would be to record custom Holiday greetings or have an employee selected holiday music playlist. There is room for creativity if you’ve got a bit of vision and an interest in marketing. It will be exciting to see what they come up with in the next few years.
What’s To Come?
I asked Andreas what his predictions were for the future of the hospitality industry with sound technology. His predictions were that in the next several years, smart speakers would be in 10 million hotel rooms. This is not taking into account Airbnb. Smart Voice Systems’ goal is to get 10 percent of that market.
More proprietaries are still left to implement voice technology so there is a lot of room for growth and for his predictions to end up being even higher. New Zealand in particular is quite limited by Amazon and Google right now. Seeing as New Zealand is a much smaller market than say the U.S. or even Australia, they are generally several years behind in tech and implementation of said tech. However, as voice technology becomes more and more mainstream, it’s only a matter of time until the whole world partakes.
As Andreas stated and I quote,
“We clearly see the vision. We have no doubt that devices are growing and the utilization of it will do the same. This voice technology isn’t going away; it’s only growing and becoming more and more mainstream.”
