Ipsos report shows how to conquer the Western European market with voice technology
15-06-2018 09:05:31 | Editor: Suzanne van der Meij | hits: 3807 | Tags:

Ipsos analyzed almost 75,000 US user reviews of the first generation Echo to determine to what extent voice technology should improve in order to conquer the Western European market. The results were clear: users love it, but do point out some substantial shortcomings. Here are the highlights of what consumers liked and disliked:

- The experience of voice, interacting with a smart device in your home by simply speaking to it, has the power to create a strong personal connection with the user. The feeling of having a digital friend in your house who understands you and can make your life easier is very powerful.
- The entertainment function of playing your favorite music on a speaker with a high sound quality is the first layer that builds the user experience. The basics that enable the device to work properly, like connectivity, the setup and the voice control leave room for further improvement.
- What still needs improvement is Alexa’s capability to listen to people with a strong accent or in an environment with background noise. As Alexa’s features and functionalities fully rely on voice, issues with voice control can be a huge frustration. 

To understand how consumers experience the new category of voice controlled devices, we analyzed reviews of almost 75,000 US users of the first generation Amazon Echo. The review data was categorized with Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology that is based on recognizing linguistic patterns in unstructured text (semantic network analysis). Which topics with the most impact on granting the product with a five-star rating was revealed by a random forest driver analysis (regression analysis). A qualitative deep dive on the verbatims was added to give more context how users talk about their experience. This case study is an example of Ipsos new Social Insights portfolio to use rating and review data for product intelligence.

www.ipsos.com