Why Voice Mail vendors should pay more attention to Voice to Text services - part 2
This is a follow up to my last post about the relevance of Voice to Text for Voice Mail vendors.
One of the main challenges operators face when introducing new value added services to their offering is defining the target segment and making sure these services will attract a large enough group of subscribers.
A compelling business case is not the only factor that operators will use to determine whether or not to launch a new service. However, VAS managers are under increased pressure to raise ARPU and the effort required to launch new services will hardly be worth their time if they cannot show a significant contribution to the bottom line.
At first glance, the business case for voice to text delivery of voice mail messages may seem difficult, in particular for Tier 2 and Tier X operators. The cost of transfering messages -mainly because of costs associated to ensuring the quality of transcription- makes it seem that this is a service that can only be offered to specific segments, such as corporate customers, where inreasing ARPU by $5 US dollars is not perceived as impossible.
However, this approach might prove deceiving and could very well be why Voice Mail vendors have not paid much attention to the potential of this service.
The reason I believe this is that, even though this service can be expected to increas call completion (increased retrieval will stimulate call deposit, which is where the money is), there will always be a segment of heavy users (3+ messages per day) and a low usage segment (less than 3 messages per week). In the end, this will translate into increased ARPU accross all segments by virtue of improving the user experience; a 5% increase in the heavy users segment can represent 3 to 7 dollars in the case of heavy users and perhaps 1 dollar for the low usage segment.
If a successful business case can be built with these assumptions, it should be clear that voice to text has the potential of revitalizing the voice mail business significantly by addressing the mass market. The cost of translating messages should not be a factor that discourages vendors and operators to take a second look at this service and reconsider their assumptions when building a business case for this service.
One of the main challenges operators face when introducing new value added services to their offering is defining the target segment and making sure these services will attract a large enough group of subscribers.
A compelling business case is not the only factor that operators will use to determine whether or not to launch a new service. However, VAS managers are under increased pressure to raise ARPU and the effort required to launch new services will hardly be worth their time if they cannot show a significant contribution to the bottom line.
At first glance, the business case for voice to text delivery of voice mail messages may seem difficult, in particular for Tier 2 and Tier X operators. The cost of transfering messages -mainly because of costs associated to ensuring the quality of transcription- makes it seem that this is a service that can only be offered to specific segments, such as corporate customers, where inreasing ARPU by $5 US dollars is not perceived as impossible.
However, this approach might prove deceiving and could very well be why Voice Mail vendors have not paid much attention to the potential of this service.
The reason I believe this is that, even though this service can be expected to increas call completion (increased retrieval will stimulate call deposit, which is where the money is), there will always be a segment of heavy users (3+ messages per day) and a low usage segment (less than 3 messages per week). In the end, this will translate into increased ARPU accross all segments by virtue of improving the user experience; a 5% increase in the heavy users segment can represent 3 to 7 dollars in the case of heavy users and perhaps 1 dollar for the low usage segment.
If a successful business case can be built with these assumptions, it should be clear that voice to text has the potential of revitalizing the voice mail business significantly by addressing the mass market. The cost of translating messages should not be a factor that discourages vendors and operators to take a second look at this service and reconsider their assumptions when building a business case for this service.
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