Problem: Can you avoid phone calls at work and replace them with voice recordings, and then make calls/respond to calls on your own time? Currently, people have to actively make calls and there’s no platform convenient enough to support the transition into asynchronous calling.
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Solution: The way text messages are a form of asynchronous communication, with both parties replying at their comfort, can be the way voice calls become in the future. The business would build the perfect ‘text messaging app’, but for voice calls and specifically targeted towards the business community. Think of voicemail; the caller can simply ‘leave’ a message when the receiver is unavailable and the receiver would reply when they want to.
This historical popularity of the voicemail system is a testament to the idea’s efficacy. While it is now in decline due to the development of messaging apps and digital mail, the need for voice messaging, especially in business environments, is unlikely to reduce, the primary reason for this being the importance of voice communication in the corporate world.
Research suggests that effective communication is key to great business leadership and success. As suggested by Sati Siroda (regarding the importance of voice in business) in the LinkedIn article titled “Leadership Voice: The Importance of Authencity”:
“Your leadership voice is the tone, style, and message that you convey in your communication with your team, colleagues, and stakeholders. It's the way you speak, the words you use, and the emotions you express. Your leadership voice sets the tone for your team and can either inspire them to greatness or leave them feeling uninspired and unengaged.
Authenticity is the key to a strong leadership voice. When you communicate with your team, be yourself, and don't try to be someone you're not. Your team will respond better to a leader who is genuine and relatable than to someone who is putting on a show.”
She also talks of Steve Jobs, stating:
“Jobs' leadership voice was a key driver of Apple's success. He was able to inspire his team to achieve great things and to create products that people didn't even know they wanted through his strong and determined tone. His vision and his ability to communicate it were essential to the company's turnaround and continued success.
The lesson for leaders is clear: your voice matters. Your ability to communicate your vision and inspire your team is essential to achieving your goals.”
Where does the platform come into this? With global trends like remote work due to the pandemic, globalization, and more emphasis on work-life balance on the rise, this is the perfect opportunity for the launch of such a platform: A seamless application to streamline asynchronous calling in work environments and integrate with tools to make voice calls (pre-and post- calls) more manageable, and less stressful.
While it is true that apps like Whatsapp, iMessage, Discord, and Slack allow for voice messages, none of them are optimized for corporate use. This will be the business’ USP: additional work-oriented features, such as automatic note-taking on asynchronous calls, integration with business tools (CRM, calendars, project management, etc.), communication analytics, language translation (MNCs), and integration with AI tools, among others. The tool could also list the urgency of the message (run an AI analysis on the emotions/tone/sentiment analysis of the speaker and provide data). Maybe it could even tell you which calls to answer first.
The online audio communication market value is expected to surpass $5 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 19.1% during the forecast period. Moreover, with companies propelling towards remote work, technology being on the rise, and high monetization opportunities for the business, the platform surely has the potential to revolutionize communication for companies.
Current competitors in the field are Async, for example, which adds features to asynchronous voice messages, such as a link to add to Notion or email (see article). Our app would have many more corporate features, such as sending translations, taking meeting notes for all participants, integrating with calendars and Zoom, and scheduling potent suggested meetings a speaker suggests. While some competitors exist (e.g. Otter.AI….), they are clearly specifically focused on one part of corporate efficiency and voicemail management, such as taking notes.
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Contributed by: Daksh Sachdeva