Dealerships: your future is increasingly based on the power of voice as an interface. At some high-profile events, influential authorities are casting a bigger spotlight on the impact of voice. For example, at the recently conducted Code 18 conference, Venture Capitalist Mary Meeker, one of the most powerful women in technology, cited voice as one of the key catalysts for business innovation.
“With voice, we’ve hit technology liftoff with word accuracy and we’ve certainly hit product liftoff with Amazon Echo’s install base estimated to be around 30 million plus,” she said, as she presented the findings of her annual Internet Trends Report at Code Conference 2018, a technology event conducted by Recode.
Indeed, more Americans are using voice to live and work, whether they’re in their cars using voice commands to get directions to drive somewhere or exploring a dealership’s website. About half of Americans use digital voice assistants, according to a recently conducted Pew Research Center study. And according to Gartner, by 2019, 30 percent of all web browsing will be done without a screen, and one-third of all searches will be voice led this year.
Clearly, dealerships need to prepare yourselves for a world in which your customers are using voice interfaces to discover you and do business with you. For example, one way dealerships are making the transition is to optimize website content to be discovered through more complex voice commands.
Another approach (among many) is to embed voice-based search into your website. The good news is that tools are available to help dealerships do just that. Recently Dealer Inspire announced the launch of Website Voice Search, which allows people to use only their voice to navigate search results on a dealer’s website. As we noted in a press release, this capability allows visitors to dealerships’ websites find what they are looking for instantly, without ever having to enter a single letter of text on their screen. A user verbally commands the computer using the wake word “show me” to navigate search results for everything from “new Toyota Corollas” to “all red SUVs with all-wheel drive.”
Not only are the search results incredibly accurate, but they appear lightning fast, making the online car shopping experience that much easier. As I told NBC Chicago Tech Trends, Dealer Inspire Website Voice Search makes it possible for consumers to take a search that used to take seconds down to milliseconds.
https://www.facebook.com/DealerInspire/videos/1915651648447864/
A consumer can say something like “Show me red Honda Civics” and receive instant results. Consumers demand easy, and they demand fast. We need to provide the easiest experience for the consumer.
Exploring the digital world with our voices is going to become even more prevalent as the accuracy of voice technology improves. And as Mary Meeker noted, accuracy of voice technology has indeed gotten to the point where we are achieving lift-off. Dealerships, are you ready for the ride? Contact Dealer Inspire for more insight.
