As the e-commerce industry booms, businesses in this space have to increase their efficiency and productivity significantly to stay competitive. While there are multiple ways to achieve this, technology offers some great options.

Businesses need to constantly communicate, interact, or speak to various stakeholders. This also creates the need to jot down or type in important information. In addition, many emails and other documentation need to be created daily. Content such as marketing collaterals, flyers, and such is equally important.

If the time and effort spent on typing or writing can be reduced, it could be invested in content ideation and idea generation.

This paves the way for technology solutions like - dictation apps and speech-to-text. Dictation for Gmail extensions makes writing lengthy emails an absolute breeze. Read on to delve into speech-to-text, its benefits, ways it helps to improve productivity, why it is better over ChatGPT, and more.

What is dictation technology? How does it function?

In simple terminology, dictation technology is an enablement technique to help people struggling to write. While it is commonly used for kids suffering from disorders like dyslexia, dysgraphia, or such, it’s gaining prominence in the e-commerce industry and among online professionals.

At its most basic, dictation technology converts words spoken into digital text on a screen. There are various ways dictation technology is implemented.

Built-in dictation software

In most modern devices like smartphones (Android/iOS), desktops or laptops (Windows/Mac), and Chromebooks (ChromeOS), the microphone and dictation software are embedded. All you need is a good internet connection to get started.

Dictation apps

Various downloadable dictation apps are available on the internet, which are easy to install on digital tablets or mobiles and find your way. Dictation for Gmail extension is an amazing app for e-commerce businesses that need to continuously work on crafting emails and documentation.

Chrome software

Several Chromebooks or Chrome browser-enabled software are available that allow dictation. Some examples include - WordQ, Read&Write, and more.

Speech recognition software holds the capacity to transcribe over 150 words per minute. Even professional transcriptionists type an average of 50-80 words per minute, which implies dictation overrides typing. In the ever-evolving e-commerce space, speech-to-text technology has a significant role.

How can dictation help speed up text input or writing tasks?

Dictation significantly boosts the speed as it is faster than typing and more accurate. With typing or writing, the chances are you make mistakes. However, dictation lets you convert your words into text on the fly and enables you to proofread. For example, a dictation for Gmail extension lets you multitask. Say you are in a conference. You can use the dictate app to take notes while you focus on listening.

Ways to enhance productivity using dictation technology

Transcribing audio-recordings

If all your content is available as audio, you can transcribe it and repurpose the text in your way. Transcription services are widely used to edit and modify various content formats, including blogs, email campaigns, infographics, social media posts, etc. In addition, these services are highly cost-effective and play a significant role in increasing the audience engagement.

Creating Voice-controlled workflows

The E-commerce industry works with online stores, portals, and such. It would be a great experience for shoppers if they could be guided through the buying process via audio rather than struggling to find a product or a “shop now” button on the screen. In addition, even for the store owners, it becomes easier to manage their staff if they are instructed through voice-controlled workflows.

The various Dictation for Gmail extensions help considerably in these aspects. The dictate app makes it so simple to create these workflows that administration has never been so smooth.

Generating audio content for marketing

Audio content is much more powerful than text. You could boost your marketing campaigns by turning your infographics, for example, into amazing podcasts. Likewise, if you send out a promotional message on audio on social media, it certainly has a greater reach. Dictation for Gmail extensions like the Dictate app could significantly bolster your marketing efforts and produce desired outcomes.

Did you know some out-of-the-box applications of speech-to-text?

While most people perceive dictation to be used primarily in writing, there are some exceptional applications as well. One of the amazing applications is that of a voice-controlled ecommerce website. Dictate app lets users interact in a hands-off way to raise requests, which it processes and sends the appropriate responses.

Customers could be busy doing something, say, cooking or some other activity, yet they can easily create their requests. This could offer the customers a hassle-free and rewarding user experience while increasing your revenues.

Another example is that of certain brands like Lipsurf, which enhance product features by letting you create custom shortcuts. These tools allow you to craft simple phrases like “This is my URL,” which you can convert into a LinkedIn profile URL or website URL on dictation.

Yet another example is the voicebots that serve as a channel between you and the customers, imparting stellar customer service.

Benefits of using dictation for Gmail

Writing emails

E-commerce businesses and online professionals need to send out numerous emails every day. In addition, they need to create, modify, or manage documentation of various types. Using laptops or computers might seem the obvious solution, but it causes a lot of distraction. You may check your social media or play games and such.

However, dictation and transcription tools keep you from getting distracted. Besides, speaking is less time-consuming than typing, implying that dictation tools like speech-to-text in Gmail save much time and effort.

Furthermore, the rate at which we produce words is much higher than what we write or type. So, dictation tools, emails, or documentation work can be completed much faster!

Composing Product Descriptions

Product descriptions are a key component of the e-commerce industry. That said, they need to be accurate, crisp, and easy to understand. Speech-to-text helps craft product descriptions, which bring the audience much closer to reality and help them visualize the actual product through its description.

Managing customer support

Voice technology is the future of customer service, the most crucial segment of the e-commerce space. With Voicebots, businesses support their customers across time zones, and their queries are sorted much before a human agent is available.

Software like IVRS makes it possible to give instructions to the user, helping them proceed further in the process. This greatly enhances customer service and customer experience as well.

Unleash the potential of speech-to-text to streamline your business

Improved Communication

When you, as an e-commerce business owner, communicate with your team, customers, or prospects, there may be certain points or terminologies you wish to note down. If you need to type in or write this in between, the communication is impacted. However, dictation technology converts all your speech to text while allowing you to communicate effectively.

It makes your life easier by letting you create quick emails for suppliers or third-party vendors while keeping them personalized.

Faster Content Creation

Content creation is a creative process. You may get ideas or research and find useful information that you could make into an audio. Dictation for Gmail extensions easily converts these into written text, thereby saving time and effort that you would otherwise have to spend on typing all the content. This instead lets you focus on creating and developing ideas while letting the technology take care of the writing part.

Speech-to-text for Google Docs like Google Docs Voice Typing lets you store all your audio as written content in Google Docs. This is an excellent option for creating content, as you could later reference whatever was transcribed.

Better customer interactions

Customer interactions are a crucial part of e-commerce businesses. While speaking to your customers, say you are seeking some suggestions. At this point, if you need to write down the stuff, it affects your eye contact and gestures with the customer, which could be disturbing.

Dictation for Gmail extensions, such as Google Speech-to-text apps, lets you pay attention to the interactions and note all that has transpired.

In addition, speech-to-text in Gmail allows you to craft and send personalized customer emails, unlike the generic ones you would send by typing.

Why would you prefer dictation over ChatGPT?

While ChatGPT offers great ways to fetch a lot of information, some downsides are tackled by dictation technology. First, voice technology lets you write the content in your tone and style. Second, ChatGPT uses data that comes in 2021 and hasn’t been updated since then. However, with dictation, you can transcribe the latest data that you have from other sources, and that would be converted to text.

Best speech-to-text apps

• Dictate for Microsoft Office
• Dictation for Gmail extension
• Dragon Anywhere
• Dictation.io
• GBoard
• ListNote
• TalkTyper
• VoiceNote
• Voice Control for Mac, iPad, iPhone

Best speech-to-text Chrome extensions

• Speech To Text
• Speech Recognition Anywhere 365
• LipSurf
• Voice in Voice-in-voice typing
• DictationBox

Best speech-to-text apps for Mac

• Notta
• Apple Dictation
• Google Docs Voice Typing
• Siri for Dictation
• Speechnotes
• Braina
• Dragon for Mac

Best Chrome extensions text-to-speech

• Speechify
• Read Aloud
• Natural Reader
• Snap&Read
• Talkie: Text to Speech

Wrapping up

E-commerce businesses and online professionals must embrace the best technology solutions to stand out. Dictation for Gmail extensions offers an extremely user-friendly approach by quickly converting all the audio to written text. Besides saving considerable time and effort, it boosts their efficiency and productivity, keeping them super-charged and focused on their long-term goals.