How To Build Interactive Voice Agents Using ElevenLabs
Imagine being able to instantly reply to a question your customer may have at 2am with a realistic voice. With interactive voice agents this is totally achievable with the help of platforms like ElevenLabs.
Voice interaction is becoming more and more popular. Customers enjoy speaking to you over typing and waiting on hold. This is great for businesses looking to provide quicker support, identify more leads and scale your interactions without needing to grow your call centre. We will explain what interactive voice agents are, how ElevenLabs can help you build them and how to get started.
What Are Interactive Voice Agents?
Interactive voice agents are AI which can listen, understand and reply to questions using realistic voices. They’re much more advanced now. They can answer questions, book appointments, gather information from your systems and route to a human.
There are three main aspects to interactive voice agents. Speech to text to act as their ears, converting what is said into text. Large language models act as their brain, deciding what to say. Text to speech act as their mouth, converting text to realistic voices. All of this can be done using ElevenLabs.
This gives the customer the feeling they are talking to a helpful human.
Why Choose ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs began as an AI voice generator and text to speech leader meaning their voices are highly expressive. Whilst this may seem like a small detail, having a robotic voice will turn customers away. However, having a friendly and natural voice will keep them interested.
The company have recently merged all of their conversation tools under the ElevenLabs Agents name. This is an end to end solution for building, deploying and monitoring your conversational agents. Over 2 million agents have been created since launch by their customers. This means they have had over 33 million conversations this year. This shows just how big the technology has become and how voice agents are no longer experimental.
Some key features for businesses include:
Quick responses for a natural flow.
A wide range of voices and languages to allow you to speak to customers in dozens of languages.
Integrated with your tools. Manage complicated processes with enterprise grade reliability and control. You can link your knowledge base, tools and telephony.
Easy to deploy on phone lines, websites and mobile apps.
Common Use Cases
Interactive voice agents can solve real issues for your business saving time and money. Companies are now using ElevenLabs Agents to help answer customer questions, identify leads, do mass outbound calling, help with employee training and development, create dynamic characters in games and provide personal assistants or tutors.
Some examples you could use in your business include:
Customer support – Answer common questions, check order status and route to a human if required.
AI receptionist – Automate answering, routing and booking of incoming calls.
Sales and lead identification – Create personal calls, ask qualifying questions and pass warm leads to your sales team.
Booking appointments – Link to your calendar to allow customers to book appointments whilst talking.
Training – New employees can practice conversations or receive instant answers through a voice guide.
This would help reduce the cost for a managed IT and solutions company.
How To Build Your First Voice Agent
Building your first voice agent is easier than you might expect. You don’t need a large engineering team. Generally the steps involved are:
Define what you want your agent to do. Be specific. If you want your agent to provide support, book appointments or do outbound calls you’ll need different scripts. Focus on one thing to give the best results.
Pick the right voice. Choose a voice that reflects your brand. This will make your agent feel unique.
Add your knowledge. Add your FAQs, product information and policies to your agent. The more relevant information you add the less mistakes your agent will make.
Integrate with your tools. Connect to your calendar, CRM or telephony provider. ElevenLabs are also developing more integrations with popular business tools.
Test. Have a play with your agent. Listen closely. See how it handles challenging questions, interruptions and when it routes to a human.
Deploy. Deploy your agent on your phone line, website or app. Keep an eye on the analytics. Testing with real customers will show you where to improve your script.
If this seems like too much to manage yourself don’t worry. At BroadDigix we can help you design, build and integrate AI voice agents within your existing systems.
Things To Consider
Whilst voice agents can be a powerful tool there are a few things to consider.
They rely on preparation. Your agent will only be as good as what information and guidance you give them. Always have a handover to humans. Some questions will require empathy and judgement that shouldn’t be left to AI. Ensure you have customer data protected and any set up follows privacy and security guidelines (especially with regulated industries). Finally treat your agent like a living project. The best results come from testing, listening and improving.
Conclusion
Interactive voice agents have moved from a sci-fi idea to an actual tool for businesses. Using ElevenLabs you can create a voice agent that has natural responses, understands your customers and can perform actions over the phone, web and apps. This has really reduced the barriers to entry so those who jump on board early will benefit.
Whether you want an AI receptionist, support agent or outbound sales dialler the technology is ready.
Contact BroadDigix to see how a voice agent can help your business.
FAQs
What is an interactive voice agent?
An interactive voice agent is an AI that can listen to questions and reply with natural voices. They can answer questions, perform actions such as booking appointments and route to a human.
Do I need any coding skills to build a voice agent with ElevenLabs?
No, ElevenLabs offer an easy to use dashboard. However if you want to get technical there are also APIs and SDKs available for developers. Many businesses will also work with a partner such as BroadDigix.
How many languages do ElevenLabs voice agents support?
They support lots of different languages. This makes them a great option to use with customers in different countries.
Can a voice agent integrate with my tools?
Yes, you can integrate your knowledge base, telephony, calendar, CRM and more.
Will a voice agent replace my support?
No, voice agents work best for repeated questions and out of hours calls. Your support team will handle complex and high value conversations. A properly set up system will always have a smooth transition to a human.
How long does it take to deploy a voice agent?
Basic agents can be deployed in a matter of days. How long it takes will depend on how many integrations and bespoke workflows you need.