Smart speakers and voice assistants are taking over. In fact, Amazon alone has sold more than 100 million devices that give customers access to its voice assistant, Alexa.
Alexa and other voice assistants like Google Assistant are changing the way people search. But they can also impact your company’s daily operations by giving you an easy way to receive updates and find information quickly. And you can even customize the experience through the use of Alexa Skill Blueprints.
These Blueprints basically allow you to set up customized capabilities for your Alexa devices. Some of them are catered to families or individual users. But some of them also have business applications.
Alexa Blueprints
Here are a few of the options for your company to consider.
Business Q&A
Your team members are likely to have questions about your business or various processes from time to time. If you find yourself or other managers or supervisors constantly addressing the same questions, save everyone’s time by setting up this Business Q&A Blueprint. It basically allows you to create a set of FAQs. So employees can ask Alexa when they have a common question and get a quick response without going out of their way to find someone to ask.
Onboard Guide
Onboard Guide is a Blueprint that’s specifically for helping new team members learn your processes and best practices. You can provide instructions, list resources and share contact info for important contacts team members can go to if they have initial questions. You can update the guide at any time. So start by adding the basics and then see what team members may benefit from most as you go.
Flash Briefing
If your business creates content for customers, the Flash Briefing Blueprint allows you to create a simple stream that your customers or followers can access on their devices. You can also use it to follow RSS feeds for your own blogs or news outlets that your team can benefit from.
Blog
If you have a WordPress blog, you can add the Amazon AI plugin to your feed and then customize it with welcome messages for your followers. Basically, this Blog Blueprint lets you reach even more potential readers by optimizing your content for voice assistants and giving customers yet another way to keep up with your content. This can work for businesses that use blogs to promote their products or those that use their blog as an income generator.
University
University is a Skill Blueprint designed to help educational institutions share lectures and speaker series. For a small business, you could use it to offer educational audio content to customers or share motivational or instructional talks with team members or others in your industry.
Task Tracker
Need an easy way to keep up with your to-do list, rather than relying on online calendars or paper planners? Task Tracker gives you the ability to add a checklist of things to do and have your voice assistant read it to you each morning. You can also check things off just by conversing with Alexa. So you can easily keep track of what you’ve accomplished throughout the day.
How Many Days
If you’re counting down to a major event or product launch, you may want an easy way to constantly keep track. How Many Days provides a simple countdown feature from Alexa devices. For businesses, you can use to to better stay on top of tasks related to a launch or deadline.
Trivia
Whether you’re looking to quiz new team members on various processes or just host a simple team building activity, Trivia may come in handy. This Blueprint allows you to set up multiple choice questions on whatever subjects you choose. For a small business, you might add questions about the way your computer system works to help new employees remember. Or you could host fun trivia events during lunch as a fun reward for your team.
Inspirations
Need some extra motivation? Inspirations is a Blueprint that lets you add some of your favorite motivational quotes and sayings so you can hear them repeated back to you as needed. This may help you personally. Or you could even offer it as a motivating tool for team members.
Birthday Wishes
Birthday Wishes lets you set up personalized birthday cards and messages and send them to others on their own Alexa enabled devices. You can use it as a fun way to wish employees well on their birthdays, or even show top clients how much you value them.
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