As per a new Capgemini research, consumers prefer interacting with bots and voice assistants more than that of actual humans behind a computer. This reportedly holds good with respect to indulging in product research, checking out newer services and even whilst conducting post-purchase follow-ups. This study also adds that nearly 70% of the respondents would prefer interactions with voice assistants over physical visits to store/banks in the next three years. Findings of this study have been captured in a report titled “Smart Talk: How organizations and consumers are embracing voice and chat assistants?” 

This research, by Capgemini built on a study on voice assistants in 2017, took inputs from nearly 12000 consumers who are also users of voice assistants. There were also 1000 professional corporate executives amongst these respondents. The study showcases that over the last one-two years, 40% of respondents now using voice assistants begun doing so over the last year. The newest study also adds that around 76% of businesses (surveyed in the study) were found to be deriving benefits from voice assistants and chatbots. Then, 58% of businesses even stated that their derived benefits even exceeded their expectations.  

Benefits from voice assistants

As far as benefits are concerned these include a reduction in the overall cost involved in customer service, also translating to more than 20% of customers preferring to use digital assistants. According to the study’s findings, less than  50% of the top 100 players in sectors such as automotive, consumer products and retail, along with banking and insurance use voice assistants, and this factor holds good for chatbots as well. However, the report also determined that the actual deployment of voice assistants and chatbots is relatively lesser. Fewer than 50% of the top 100 players in automotive, consumer products and retail, and banking and insurance apparently use voice assistants and chat. Uses include purchasing products such as groceries or home care (an increase from 35% to 53%), accounted for increased customer service interactions. Then, there were queries about payments related to products/services. 

Customer engagement

Upon establishing trust, the study found that consumers are willing to go to the next level of engagement, including higher levels of personalization, emotional connection, and value. This can potentially be substantiated by the fact that two-thirds (68%) of consumers said a voice assistant allows for multi-tasking and accomplishing tasks hands-free, and 59% say that chat assistants keep improving personalization over time.  “This research establishes that conversational assistants are the future of customer interactions, valued by consumers for their convenience and by companies for the operational efficiencies they enable. Compared to our study released in early 2018, a much higher proportion of consumers now foresee voice assistants as their first choice within the next three years,” informed Mark Taylor – who is Head of Customer Engagement at Capgemini Invent.