The use of voicebots and voice technology has been growing exponentially over the last few years. As customer engagement becomes more personalised, companies are starting to invest in this new, mobile and fast channel of connectivity. 

According to a report by Deepgram and Opus Research - 77% of the companies are using voice technology to identify new business opportunities and 62% are using it to increase revenue.

However, many companies still have inhibitions over its positive acceptance. This is because, although voicebots have a wide range of applications that are useful, many of its use-cases are often shrouded in grey area. 

Through this article we hope to burst the myth around these controversies and enable businesses across verticals to adopt voice technology aka Automated Phone Calls smartly with suitable applications - thereby improving communications efficiency and productivity with better CX with reduced operational costs. 

Using voice calls for sales

Don'ts: Direct Selling / Promoting

Using automated voice calls for sales can be considered intrusive and doesn't usually lead to any positive conversions. So, ideally companies should avoid automated sales calls offering product or services which is subject to a fee or subscription that the customer does not necessarily want to take (free sample + rolling contract, unless cancelled) or otherwise.

Instead a call campaign can be launched at a target group selected from within customer register, provided the group has given permission to approach them in this way. With a special voice message possibly from a celebrity introducing your product. The publicity raised by the campaign will reciprocate on other channels like social media and promotes sales.

Do's: Win-Loss Analysis

Typically a win or loss analysis is the process of finding out why a customer bought your product or why they didn't. It helps to understand, analyse and optimise your sales process for future. Companies who conduct this analysis tend to have a higher sales acquisition quota, customer retention rate or growth revenue. While this analysis maybe sound complicated, it can be launched easily with an automated friendly call. As it avoids possible human conflicts and captures the answers fast and seamlessly. No additional time or resources needed!

Using voice calls for research 

Don't: Lead Hunting

Interviews disguised as market research for lead generation receives the maximum amount of negative feedback. Often companies deploy interviews over automated calls to ask generic questions for the purpose of screening and building potential lead lists. This method of using voice calls are often perceived as intrusive and unethical. Instead one can use AI chat-bots for this purpose as it helps to collect potential customer data and build up the sales pipeline.

Do's: Customer Experience Surveys

This is one of the best applications of automated call campaigns. According to the report by Deepgram and Opus Research - 73% of respondents noted customer experience analysis as the most impactful use of voice technology.

This data validates the increasing use of automated calls for securing quality customer feedback as it more engaging, accelerates responses and is cost-efficient.

Conversational voicebots launched by On-time captures customer responses and pushes them to the database for convenient planning and analysis to capitalise on the best insights.

Using voice calls for public sector

Don't: Election Campaigns

Although calls a great way to build connections and share campaign updates - automating the process to boost reach and poll results is not promoted or encouraged by us. This method of call automation is still widely used but when made to a list of people outside the opted-in list of party workers or voters it borders towards unethical promotions. 

Do's: Citizen surveys

Instead local authorities can gather feedback of citizens on different development activities in order to analyse their work and map quality support. They can also launch automated call campaigns to communicate important updates during crisis scenarios.

Check out these case stories to know how public sector organisations in Finland conducted automated call surveys to monitor the well-being of city's residents.

Using voice calls for recruitment

Don't: Canvassing

Often agencies launch automated call campaign to reach multiple contact lists of young people aged 20-29, enquire about their employment status and try to directly recruit them as canvassers. They are further expected to promote an unrelated company or possible job openings to other contacts. This method of automated recruitment drives never delivers authentic, quality results.

Automated voice technology provides a new and efficient channel for mass communication for many business functions however it must be used ethically with a value-driven mindset, for the best results.

Do's: Screening

The use of voice technology is popularly growing in HR industry as call automation offers fast and cost efficient ways to screen potential candidates.

A popular recruitment company based out Finland successfully uses On-time’s call automation platform to conduct automated screening interviews with candidates who have applied to a particular job. This saves them both financial and human resources as the recruiters can now focus on more critical tasks like interviewing ideal applicants for the said job.

On-time encourages businesses to establish a clear set of rules and sustainable development paths before investing in automated voice technology

As one of the leading Automated Phone Calls solution provider in the Nordics we understand the need for ethical operating framework in this sector. With knowledge from our multiple customer use-cases and results from various voice call campaigns we are better equipped to efficiently regulate, GDPR compliant communications and promote suitable applications to ensure that voicebots are used in an ethical manner.

DMA Finland (Data & Marketing Association of Finland) is the trade association for responsible customer management, data driven multi-channel services and commerce. As a member company of DMA Finland, we have several years of experience of industry self-regulation and help to create better customer experiences now and in the future.