Every business can develop an Alexa skill and employ it in so many ways.

Many businesses already developed their own skill, but with very bad results.

Other businesses, on the other hand, have achieved excellent results in terms of customer satisfaction, growth in sales and quality of service offered.

So if you have a business and you are thinking about creating your own Alexa skill the question you should ask yourself is:

“What kind of skill can I develop that is effective and valuable?”.

In this article we’ll see several players that acted immediately to have their Alexa skills, how they are using it and for what purpose.

The big companies who created and Alexa skill

1 – Just Eat – When you don’t want to cook or go out, Just eat is ready to save you and we know that.

In this case the skill of Just eat allows you to order easily and quickly.

“Alexa, ask Just Eat to reorder my latest sushi” and here you go, without repeating the order and all the data, the meal is headed to your home.

You can also use the skill to ask for updates on the delivery status of your order.

Maximum simplification for hungry customers.

2 – Fitbit – Fitbit is a very popular brand of smart watches to monitor physical activity, sleep, steps, calories burned and so on.

By syncing the skill to the watch, you can ask for updates on your stats whenever you want.

This makes it easier, faster and accessible for their customers to know how well they are doing.

This is an example of skill not built primarily for profit, but to offer better service to the customers and a “reward”.

Hearing a voice that compliments you for achieving your physical activity goals of the day can be quite rewarding (also because you can let everyone hear it).

3 – Marriotts hotel – The Marriotts hotel chain has equipped its rooms with Amazon Echo, providing its skill to answer frequently asked questions and handle simple customer requests .

For example, meal times, order room service, ask for dinner tips, check out times or how the laundry service works.

In this way they have automated the answers to questions they used to get quite often, while at the same time being able to offer a better service.

The customer receives an immediate response without having to call the reception or to go physically and ask the same thing 100 times if he can’t remember it.

Not a skill to acquire new customers or to become known by potential customers, but to raise the bar of the service offered (useful element to build customer loyalty).

4 – Domino’s pizza – Domino’s created his own skill to make orders easier.

It allows you to order your favorite pizza, have it delivered to the usual address and pay with the usual card.

Basically (as for Just Eat) it saves a lot of time and makes ordering really easy.

To that feeling of sudden hunger, combined with the laziness of not wanting to cook, a client can respond simply by invoking Alexa’s help.

You just give in to the temptation of pizza with a command like “Alexa, order the usual pizza by 8” and Domino’s received another order.

They developed this skill even though they already had their convenient and extremely used ordering app.

Right choice?

Domino’s marketing director talked about the results of the launch of their skill.

Well, 1 out of 5 customers already ordered pizza with Alexa despite using the app.

And these are just the results of the first 2 months!

Facilitating the purchasing process as much as possible is certainly a profitable strategy.

Skills for personal brands

5 – Gary Vaynerchuk – Gary is one of the most capable entrepreneurs to motivate and communicate his energy.

With its GaryVee 365 skill, you receive daily pills about entrepreneurship and everything about being an entrepreneur.

One more way to distribute content and consolidate his position as industry authority.

Gary has been a strong supporter of Amazon Alexa and voice-based technology since day one.

6 – The Kardashians – Here we could talk about a skill for the family personal brand.

A quote game from the super popular Kardashians that has as much as 78% of 5 star reviews!

The game is to guess who in the Kardashian that said a certain phrase from their show.

Not that special skill so far, but there’s more.

In fact, they have included weekly drawings with prizes for those who use the skill and share it on Twitter.

An extra incentive to receive free advertising triggering virality, increase the viewers of the show and make them talk about.

A skill a bit frivolous for sure, but with a precise strategy behind it.

7 – Joe Bastianich – I couldn’t skip a skill I created and of which I’m proud of.

For the first time a skill becomes an intimate and personal conversation tool with your favourite character.

You can ask Joe about wine, food, music and much more.

It’s not just for having conversations, but with this skill you can also play around with Joe’s culinary skills and personality.

You can even ask for a recipe based on the ingredients you have available and receive the recipe by email.

A great example of a skill built to strengthen the relationship with the audience.

Big impact for small local businesses

8 – Laundrapp – is a laundry service that in the UK has been able to innovate this very outdated and poorly technological industry.

Thanks to their skill, you’re able to make them pick up your dirty laundry simply by saying, “Alexa ask Laundrapp to pick up my dirty laundry tomorrow morning at 11:00” and see them back home cleaned within 48 hours.

The results they are getting are incredible in terms of skill usage and enthusiastic customers.

Here we are not talking about a rich, technological sector that targets a particular audience, maybe with a high buying power.

We are talking about a traditional business that has been able to promptly embrace the technology and leverage it to beat the competition and expand its market, gaining great success among its own customers.

9 – 1-800-Flowers – Imagine forgetting a birthday or an anniversary and not having time to go and buy flowers.

Don’t worry.

Ask Alexa for a colorful and fragrant bouquet to deliver it wherever you like and the problem is solved.

1-800-Flowers uses an Alexa skill to get its flowers ordered.

The result? Lots of orders received from a target of a much lower age than usual.

They expanded their market simply by leveraging the new ways of communicating that technology has offered them.

To Conclude

As you just saw, not only big companies, but also personal brands or small businesses didn’t wait for some of their competitors to be successful with a skill, they didn’t waste time.

Each skill has different features, but all with the same goal: to put customers and potential customers at the centre to be close to them.

Making it easier to approach and discover your business, buying from your business and talking with your business will only strengthen it.

What’s the idea behind the skill you want to create for your business?

If you found the right idea you can start creating your skill by clicking down below on “Start for free”.

If you didn’t find it yet, this article may help you so check it out.

Talk to you soon,

Juxhin
CEO and Founder of IPERVOX