Do you own a smart device in your home? A fire alarm that connects to an app on your phone? A peephole that sends push notifications when someone’s at the door? A curtain rod you can set up to open and close at a set-up time? If you own any of these, your house is already a part of the Internet of Things.
Internet of Things or IoT — a network of physical objects equipped with sensors and software and interconnected into a single system with the purpose of connecting and ‘communicating’ with each other.
IoT is the future of homes, smart devices, and customer experience.
What are we to expect, and what are the consequences of merging IoT and customer service?
In this article, we'll cover:
What Are the Main Challenges of IoT?
Implementation Speed
Despite 13 billion IoT devices already being in use around the globe, the speed of their implementation still needs to improve. Only some users are ready to improve their homes with smart devices, and that stalls the development of the industry.
Nevertheless, the market is growing, and more than 34 billion IoT devices will be in use by the end of 2032.
Interconnectivity
There are numerous producers of Internet of Things devices and systems. Whether they can be connected with each other and used seamlessly is a big question that can create a lot of discomfort for modern consumers who want everything to work perfectly and without interruptions.
Right now, the future of IoT hangs on the interconnectivity of devices. Without it, the industry can’t develop.
Usable Design
If more and more household devices will be substituted with their smart counterparts, they need to be as usable as possible, because not all users are tech-savvy and can deal with complicated systems, applications, and machines.
Together with interconnectivity, usable design can revolutionize user experience and our homes as we know them. But these are not the only things that will be transformed by further development of IoT. Customer service will also be transformed by it.
How Will IoT Change Customer Service?
Better Supply Chain Management
By utilizing new devices and adding new soft- and hardware to their repertoire, technical support and customer service teams will be able to track customers’ orders in real time and update them on the go.
Information is one of the core needs of modern customers. They want to be provided with the most relevant and up-to-date data at all times. They also want it to be correct, as being provided with incorrect information will prompt them to contact customer support multiple times, which is not something they are eager to do.
The IoT technology will help businesses and their support teams to provide users with the most relevant information because:
- With the help of IoT interconnectivity, all systems will communicate with each other in real time and automatically update the required information.
- Businesses will be able to attach physical sensors and GPS tags on boxes and shipping containers, which will provide them with real-time geolocation of all customers’ orders. The only tool they will need to manage it all is a CRM system that will be able to handle such a massive amount of data, as well as a support team that knows how to operate the system properly.
Personalization Will Be Even More Prominent
In the words of the McKinsey researchers, “Consumers don’t just want personalization, they demand it.” IoT will be able to satisfy any demand and will help businesses provide the most personalized purchase and post-purchase services they have ever seen.
The pitfall here is the process of gathering the required data. Customers have to be:
- Aware of the process
- Able to revoke a company’s right to collect the data via IoT devices at any time
- Able to access their data to delete or change it
It is important to remember about ISO, PCI DSS, GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA regulations that protect customers and their data or select a Support-as-a-Service provider that is already compliant and certified up to the highest security standards.
AR Will Enhance Customer Service Teams
AR is one of the key components of IoT.
IoT can connect any device to a homogenous system. AR can help a support team get all the required information about said device. This will allow support teams to understand any issue right away and fix it in a matter of minutes. Fast resolutions will increase customer satisfaction and will keep customers from churning, which is the ultimate goal of any company.
The Internet of Things will gradually change customer service as we know it. It will be of higher quality and will set the plank high for modern businesses and their support teams. Support consultants will have to constantly develop and get new knowledge about working with new systems and satisfying customers according to their evolving standards. Something that the SupportYourApp team has been doing for 13 years and will keep on doing.
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Daria Leshchenko is the CEO and Managing Partner at SupportYourApp. Taking charge of SupportYourApp at the age of 21, Daria turned it into a multinational business and one of the TOP-5 customer support providers. She is a Harvard Kennedy School alumna and a contributor to Entrepreneur, Sifted, Crunchbase, The Next Web and HackerNoon. She was interviewed by Nasdaq, TechRound, Authority Magazine and was a guest on several podcasts. Daria was recognized as the Woman of the Year (2021) in Customer Service by Stevie Awards. In 2022, she received a Golden Globee Award and became the Customer Service and Success Woman of the Year. In 2023, Daria was featured in the prestigious 200 Female Founders list by Inc. and was recognized as Accomplished Leader by CCA. Daria is a startup mentor, a public speaker, art and sports enthusiast.
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