A new Alexa skill is quickly built and certified at Amazon. Depending on its complexity, this process can be completed in a few weeks. The same applies to Google Actions. But some people put their hands in their laps afterwards and wonder why their new, innovative voice application does not go through the roof. History repeats itself: 25 years ago, with the advent of the World Wide Web, many HTML projects were published whose content was not updated for a long time. Today nobody would launch a website or a smartphone app and then leave it to itself. Why should it be different with an Alexa skill, a Google Action or a Bixby capsule? In this session you will learn about strategies and solutions to make your voice application up-to-date, interactive and interesting. Use the existing tools of the providers and make sure that your content can easily be kept up-to-date. We will also look at the insights and modernization measures from the three-year operation of one of the first German-speaking Alexa Skills.

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Alexa,Alexa,
what's next?what's next?

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Ralf Eggert
CEO of Travello GmbH
Alexa Partner Agency
AWS Certified Alexa Skill Builder
Alexa Champion
Bixby Premier Developer

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Alexa?Alexa? Google Assistant?Google Assistant? Bixby?Bixby? Other?Other?

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The start

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Seven
Project
Phases

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The theory
1. Kickoff
3. Conception
5. Implementation
7. Maintenance
2. Prototyping
4. Design 6. Testing
Going live

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The reality
1. Kickoff
3. Conception
5. Implementation
7. Maintenance
2. Prototyping
4. Design
6. Testing
Going live

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Continuous Maintenance
1 3 52 4 6 1 3 52 4 6 1 3 52 4 6
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Continuous Maintenance
Promote Monitor Improve Repeat

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Let's get started

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How to implementHow to implement
Continuous
Maintenance?

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PromotePromote

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What is theWhat is the
problem?problem?

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The »after launch flat line«

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NoNo
traffic!traffic!

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Ask not what Amazon
can do for your Alexa
Skill!
Ask what you can do for
your Alexa Skill!

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9 tips9 tips
for promotingfor promoting

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SSO
Optimize all texts, icons,
keywords, category for the
Alexa Skill Store.
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Social Media
Create a group or fan page,
build a community and
inform them about your
voice experience.
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Landing Page
Create an exciting landing
page with further
information about the
Alexa Skill.
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Promotion video
Produce a promotion video
for your voice application to
show it in action.
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Influencer
Ask influencers from a
suitable industry (e.g. travel,
fitness, etc.) to talk about
your voice experience.
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Blogs & News
Contact blogs and news
portals specialized on Smart
Assistants to report about
your new voice application.
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Quick Links
Use Quick Links to make it as
easy as possible for new and
returning users to access
your Alexa Skill.
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NFI Toolkit (beta)
Use the Name-Free
Interactions (NFI) Toolkit to
no longer depend on the
invocation name.
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Special Events
Host a special event like a
raffle with interesting prizes
to promote your voice
experience.
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A quite successful promotion

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MonitorMonitor

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UseUse
AnalyticsAnalytics

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8 tips8 tips
for monitoringfor monitoring

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Summary
Daily or once a week
Default is last 7 days
Watch the rise or fall
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Customers
Identify days of highest (SA)
and lowest (MO) usage
Implement features on
days with lowest usage
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Sessions
Spot error situations
Check logs for these
situations
Try to avoid these
situations in future
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Intents
Spot most used and
lesser used intents
Improve most used intents
Remove lesser used intents
(if possible)
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Interaction Path
Examine carefully!
Is your dialog working out?
Are people losing their way?
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Retention
How many come back
after one week?
After ten weeks?
Can you spot any progress?
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Intent history
Examine the intent history
on a regular base.
If you have no data yet,
improve promotion first
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Watch reviews
Monitor them regularly.
Answer if it makes sense.
If you have no reviews yet,
improve promotion first
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Don't be afraidDon't be afraid
of bad reviews!of bad reviews!

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ImproveImprove

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8 tips8 tips
for improvingfor improving

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React to reviews
Use the power of
constructive bad reviews!
Fix bugs and problems asap!
Be polite and don't argue.
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Improve model
Use intent history to fix
utterances with low
confidence daily, or with
medium confidence weekly.
Update interaction model.
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Improve content
Add new content as
frequently as possible, at
least monthly!
Can you add daily fresh
content?
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Add new intents
Add more intents to solve
your users problems and to
improve your voice
experience.
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Add new features
New Alexa features can
solve old problems, e.g.
FallbackIntent.
Improve you simple Skill with
more complex features.
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Ask your fans
Contact your fans and ask
you community for their
most wanted improvements.
Reward the best ideas.
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Add voice actors
Improve the voice experience
by exchanging synthetic
voices with real voice actors.
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Add easter eggs
Add some hidden features to
your voice applications like
answers to unrelated but
frequently asked questions.
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RepeatRepeat

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Infinite loop
Promote
Monitor
Improve
Repeat

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Conclusion

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Project phases
Maintenance is the
longest project phase!

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Promote
Increase the number of
users of your Alexa Skill.

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Monitor
Examine the metrics
regularly and act!

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Improve
Make your Alexa skill a
little bit better every day.

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Repeat
Again and again and again.
And then again.

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Thanks!
ralf@travello.audio
https://www.travello.audio