Creating the First Voice App in Bus Travel
OurBus
Principles in Practice
- INNOVATION: Innovative technologies are positioned to succeed when they receive investment of time and funding from organizations, creators and consumers.
- INNOVATION: Early adopter brands gain an advantage in new tech through first-hand experimentation.
Situation:
Voice is positioned to grow into the default way for people and devices to interact.
Innovation is core to OurBus’ brand and one of our primary target audiences are college students who are early adopters.
Insight:
Innovation requires action, testing and learning. OurBus had an opportunity to be an early leader in the voice space, which we didn’t pass up.
To ensure discovery, which is the main barrier for most brand voice apps, we had to integrate it into our regular communications so it became an additional way for people to interact, rather than a standalone activation.
Action:
We created the first voice app in bus travel on both Alexa and Google Assistant. Give it a try, just say “Alexa, open OurBus” or “Hey Google, talk to OurBus”.
- Route information
- Automated text messages to complete bookings (Twilio integration)
- Campaign activation
- Games
- FAQs
We communicated the voice app across key touchpoints
- Customer emails
- Partner emails
- Website
- Social Media Ads
- Sponsored media placement
- Mobile Notifications
In addition to communication, we gathered feedback from users about their experience and what they wanted from an OurBus voice experience in the future.
Result:
Hundreds of people interacted with OurBus through voice and feedback was positive.
- 75% rated the experience 8-10 out of 10
- Nobody rated it less than a 5 out of 10
- Specific feedback on future feature requests provided clear direction for the next version
Principles in Practice
- INNOVATION: Innovative technologies are positioned to succeed when they receive investment of time and funding from organizations, creators and consumers.
- INNOVATION: Early adopter brands gain an advantage in new tech through first-hand experimentation.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
- COMPANY: OurBus
- CATEGORIES: Voice App | Innovation | Experimentation
- ROLE: Concept Design | Product Lead | Content Writer | Team Lead
PROJECT OVERVIEW
- COMPANY: OurBus
- CATEGORIES: Voice App | Innovation | Experimentation
- ROLE: Concept Design | Product Lead | Content Writer | Team Lead