Does your website need a voice assistant?

The short answer: not every site needs one. A voice assistant is worth it when visitors ask questions before they buy or get in touch, when the answers are spread across several pages, and when your site gets visits outside business hours. A one-page site that rarely gets questions usually doesn't need one.

What does a voice assistant do on your site?

A voice assistant is an AI assistant that sits in the corner of your site, listens to a visitor's question and answers out loud. A well set-up assistant will:

• Greet the visitor and ask what they're looking for.
• Answer from what's written on your site, without making up anything that isn't there.
• Take the visitor to the right page and show the section it's talking about on screen.
• Take an interested visitor's name, phone number and request, and pass them on to you.

So it works less like a chat window and more like someone who knows your site and shows the visitor around.

Who is it useful for?

• Sites whose visitors ask questions before deciding. Sites that often get questions about choosing a product, sizes, compatibility, the process or what the price covers.
• Sites whose information is spread across many pages. If visitors have to browse several pages to find what they want, the assistant takes them straight there.
• Sites that get visits outside business hours. A question asked at night doesn't have to wait until morning, and the visitor's contact details aren't lost.
• Sites with visitors from abroad. The assistant talks to visitors in your site's language.

Who may not need one?

• One-page sites that explain a single thing and get almost no questions.
• Sites where visitors already know what they want and buy straight away, without asking.
• Businesses with very little information on their site. The assistant only says what's on your site, so filling in that information first is the better place to start.

Ask yourself before you decide

1. What questions have you received by phone, email or message in the past month?
2. Are the answers on your site, and if so, can visitors find that page easily?
3. At what times do your visitors arrive, and is there anyone they can ask at those times?
4. What language do your visitors speak?

If your answer to the first two is "yes, we get frequent questions and the answers are scattered across the site", a voice assistant is worth trying.

The quickest way to find out

Rather than deciding on a guess, it's best to try it on your own site. With Vocalun you can enter your site's address and try your assistant for 90 seconds without signing up, asking your own questions and listening to the answers.

Frequently asked questions

Is a voice assistant the same as a chatbot?

No. With a chatbot, visitors type their question and read a written answer. With a voice assistant, they ask out loud and hear the answer, and the assistant can also take them to the relevant page. Visitors who prefer to type can do that on Vocalun too.

Does every visitor want to talk out loud?

No, not everyone does. A voice assistant doesn't replace the written content on your site; it adds another way in for visitors who'd rather talk.

What does the assistant do if my site has little information?

It relies only on what's written on your site. If it's asked something it doesn't know, it says your team will follow up. That's why it matters that the basic information on your site is complete.