Google Goes CallJoy for Small Business

Google approaches small business to AI automate phone use. like blocking unwanted calls, and providing basic response information about your services and hours.  A concierge like service with a virtual agent to save you time and people resources.   Recording and quality control via search is facilitated.  Nicely thought through.  I can also imagine that they might enhance this with more general chatbots.    Can this be abused, as was the worry with the Duplex system they demonstrated?

Helping small business phones get smart with CallJoy
By Bob Summers,   Google Blog
General Manager, CallJoy
Published May 1, 2019

Think about how many times you’ve called a small business lately. I call local businesses near my home and office all the time—just last weekend, I was on the phone with the nearest exotic pet store to see if they had food in stock for our family's pet lizard.

My team within Area 120, Google’s workshop for experimental projects, conducted testing and found that small businesses receive an average of 13 phone calls every day. If you apply that average to America's 30.2 million small businesses, that would equal roughly 400 million incoming daily calls to local businesses from consumers placing a to-go order, booking an appointment, inquiring about inventory and more. That’s why we built CallJoy, a cloud-based phone agent that enables small business owners to measure, improve and automate customer service.

Meet CallJoy

With CallJoy, small businesses have access to the same customer service options that have historically only been available to larger corporations. If you’re associated with small business using CallJoy, here’s how it works: After a quick setup, you’ll receive a local phone number. CallJoy will immediately begin blocking unwanted spam calls so you receive the calls that matter—the ones from customers. Then, when the phone rings, the automated CallJoy agent answers, greets callers with a custom message and provides basic business information (like hours of operation).

If the customer calling would like to complete a task which can be done online, like place a to-go order or book an appointment, CallJoy’s virtual agent will send the customer an SMS text message containing a URL. Whether the customer speaks with you, talks to an employee, or just interacts directly with the CallJoy agent, the call will be recorded and transcribed for quality purposes. This allows small business owners to tag and search each conversation based on topic. For example, a hair salon owner can search how many times a day callers ask about “men’s haircut pricing” or “wedding hairstyles.” From here, CallJoy compiles your data in an online dashboard and emails you a daily update, which includes metrics like call volume and new versus returning callers.  .... " 

Small Brands and CPG

Is this ultimately an innovation and delivery problem?

Why haven’t CPG giants figured out what makes small brands so popular?   by Matthew Stern in Retailwire  with further expert commentary.

Titans of the consumer packaged goods industry may be in trouble as they continue to face significant competition from smaller counterparts. In fact, small CPGs are now leading the industry’s growth if not outright market share.

Since 2013, $17 billion in sales have shifted from major CPG players to small ones, according to Forbes. And the fastest growing CPG segment this year was “extra small” brands, defined as making less than $100 million per year, with growth of 4.9 percent. Large players, defined as making more than $5.5 billion per year, lagged behind with only 0.6 percent growth. There is a confluence of factors responsible for the spike in small CPG success and the waning market domination of conglomerates that once had only each other to worry about.

Direct-to-consumer e-commerce has allowed customers to discover and begin buying from brands they’re interested in without needing to visit grocers where big name brands may be more prominent. And with some direct-to-consumer brands, like “active” drink company Dirty Lemon Beverages, offering direct-to-consumer subscription services, the convenience creates an element of brand lock-in that may keep potential customers from trying competitors in the category.  .... "