Amazon Alexa is ready to serve you in your hotel room. Are you ready for the simple in-room experience even in your holidays or during your work travel times?
Within a couple of years, voice-powered speakers have emerged to be a mainstream consumer product. Initially, Amazon focused on Alexa to be a significant household device, now the giant is available with a new program called “Alexa for Hospitality.”
The company has identified a new market for its voice-powered devices; thus developing skills to let its devices integrated into existing systems of chain hotels to vacation rentals.
Let’s understand Amazon Echo Speakers and their current and future roles within hospitality.
Amazon Alexa ranges all Echo devices, which are a brand of ‘smart speakers’. Alexa devices are capable of voice interaction, music, and audio playback, answering questions, and delivering real-time information. Moreover, the smart speaker works as an IoT device as it holds the role and capability to act like automation hub, connecting to and controlling several other ‘smart’ devices nearby.
Amazon smart speakers ‘Alexa’ is powered by artificial intelligence and served as a personal virtual assistant to guests in hotels. A user can activate these virtual assistants using a wake-up command (Alexa is a default command for Amazon’s smart speakers) and let the assistant listen to the question, request, or instructions.
Echo For Hotels
Amazon has launched “Alexa for Hospitality” in June 2018. The virtual assistant skills are produced specially for the hotel and hospitality industry. Interestingly, the innovation has witnessed a quick adoption by world’s renowned hotel chains such as Autograph Collection, Marriott, Westin Hotels & Resorts, St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, Aloft Hotels and many more.
Voicebot app development company develops skills for Alexa that let the device to be integrated easily within the existing smart devices of the properties. Not only this, Alexa empower existing smart devices to offer more personalized guest experience.
Amazon proved to be a visionary and with their latest program ‘Alexa for Hospitality,’ the company is helping the sector to give the shape to their thinking and provide the opportunity for increased sales conversion, brand experience or customer service.
How Is Voice Helpful In Hospitality?
Amazon is trying to replace the job of hotel concierge with voice-powered smart speakers. Alexa is a combination of artificial intelligence and IoT technology. Meaning, the device serves as a central ‘smart hub.’
The technology centers on voice recognition, that means the technology understand and respond to human speech. Since Echo and alike speakers function as a common point to interact, a user can pass a command for other ‘smart’ devices nearby such as turn the TV on or off, play music by the station, genre, and artist using their voice command.
The speakers are also empowered with the skills to connect with the internet and to answer to questions like local services, places to visit, or anything imaginable.
How Smart Speakers Helps in Hospitality?
1. Personalized Guest Experience
The voice-powered devices make delivering a great customer experience ‘simple.’ “Alexa for hospitality” seamlessly integrates with the existing services and amenities and help guests as a virtual concierge. Being available in a room, it becomes a hub and focuses on offering guest-centric experience with its voice-powered service. By just asking, guest can enjoy so many things like music, control in-room temperature, calling, and even check-out assistant.
In the coming future through on-going innovation, the guest will be able to connect to their personal Amazon account with Alexa. With this, they will be able to play their music, listen to Audible audiobooks, and much more.
2. Customized Hospitality Experience
Properties now can customize their services for the better guest experience. Instead of making calls to help/service desk, guests would be able to access services and amenities of the property from the comfort of their room using just their voice. Amazon brought hospitality-ready features in Alexa for guests.
This way, guests can naturally engage with Alexa via asking:
“Alexa, order room service.”
“Alexa, send up two more towels.”
“Alexa, call the front desk.”
“Alexa, help me check out.”
3. Empowered Staff
Alexa skills for the hotel industry easily transfers guests’ requests services to the right team immediately. This way, it promotes responsive support as well as eliminate routing routine tasks, including housekeeping or room-service requests. Alexa skills enable the hotel’s staff to focus on the guest interactions that matter most.
Does The Collected Data Secure With Alexa?
For customers, one of the significant concerns identified with Amazon’s Echo speakers is the subject of privacy, and with the ‘Alexa for Hospitality,’ this is even more crucial since various guests will use the service. However, Amazon has already found a way to reassure hotel owners and their visitors regarding security.
Here are Alexa’s Security and Privacy Features
Amazon ensures multiple layers of privacy protections such as:
a. Wake Word – Alexa won’t stream data to the cloud until her wake word “Alexa enacts her.” When a user wishes to use voice services, state the wake word.
b. The microphone on/off button – Using Alexa is optional. Amazon devices have a microphone on/off button based on top of the device. During the case like a microphone on/off switch is pressed, the microphones are electrically disconnected, cannot distinguish the wake word, and can’t stream any sound to the cloud. When the microphone gets disconnected, the light ring will turn red.
c. Clear indicator – When Alexa hears her wake word, the devices wake up with a blue light ring around its top, and that means she’s sending sound to the cloud. There are other lights too like green that demonstrates calling and a yellow light that indicates a message is available.
d. Privacy – Amazon encodes all data in transit between the Echo and Amazon’s servers. Additionally, all customer data is safely kept on Amazon AWS servers. Therefore, properties can’t tune in to how a user interacted with Alexa or what she said back.
Differentiate Your Property With Custom Skills
Alexa has millions of skills that properties can personalize for visitors for personal experience. Simply select skills that match your brand’s character and add them to your visitor rooms using the support of Amazon Alexa skills development company
Need more customization to deliver an exceptional experience? Building custom skills is easy if you let an Alexa skill development company help you in digital innovation. Make a differentiated experience by creating a skill that enables guests to naturally access property information, services, and amenities through voice commands.