LivePerson, a provider of conversational commerce solutions, has launched LiveEngage for Voice Assistants, a way for companies to connect conversationally, at scale, with consumers using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
LiveEngage allows customers to perform simple tasks, like paying phone bills or checking account balances, but it also allows companies to deliver the following:
- The ability to switch device or location by handing off conversations from voice assistants to messaging on smartphones;
- Access to both bots and human staff in one thread so questions too complicated for a bot can be escalated to a human customer service agent;
- Real-time metrics for customer sentiment, satisfaction, and usage;
- A "write once, run many" bot deployment framework to build one bot and run it across multiple messaging endpoints, such as in-app messaging, SMS, web messaging, Facebook Messenger, LINE, and, now, voice assistants; and
- A closed-loop optimization process, with a suite of tools to improve bot performance over time.
LiveEngage for Voice Assistants also allows multiple bots, including those from multiple vendors, to run alongside each other, with rich metrics on every detail of the conversation.
"As brands adopt conversational commerce, they need to offer consumers a continuous connection across all the most important conversational channels, and LivePerson is the first company to deliver it. With LiveEngage for Voice Assistants, brands can weave Alexa and Google Assistant into this wider continuous connection and empower consumers with the ability to get any answer they need, at any time, and from any device," said Robert LoCascio, founder and CEO of LivePerson, in a statement. "With this release, LivePerson is pointing the way to a conversational future that is far better for consumers than today's fragmented mix of phone calls, websites, and siloed social touchpoints. We're very excited about it."
"Alexa and other voice assistants are among the most beloved consumer technologies and increasingly a part of people's everyday lives—in the kitchen, the living room, and beyond," said Alex Spinelli, chief technology officer at LivePerson, in a statement. "What we have delivered with LiveEngage for Voice Assistants is a way to make them even more valuable and seamlessly integrate them with other ways to message with brands, putting the consumer in control and giving them a great experience."