According to research
from a customer experience consulting firm, by 2020, customer experience
will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. To win
customers over and create loyalty, companies need to carefully consider the
customer journey and align their messaging, goals, objectives and design across
channels and devices to deliver seamlessness and consistency.
Simply put, if customers
experience a snag in their user journey, they may be lost forever.
The IoT Omnichannel Evolution Comes With Challenges
The internet of things(IoT) has become a key factor in delivering enriched customer experiences. The
IoT enables a new level of engagement based on the insights derived from the
wealth of data collected by machines and users. I call this the “IoT
omnichannel evolution” and it’s becoming more and more prevalent thanks to the
growing affordability of sensors and actuator technology. The costs associated with sensor technology have
declined by 50 percent in the past decade, which is speeding up adoption of the
technology.
Of course, while the IoT
holds a lot of promise, it comes with its own set of challenges. As it becomes
more common for sensors and other devices to monitor not only location, but
also daily experiences such as the appliances people use, the cars they drive
and more, questions start to arise about ownership of that data. Consider the
data generated from each card swipe in a subway system, such as journey time,
destination, etc. Who owns that data? Is it the transit company? The city?
Consequently, how can we ensure security and privacy of that data and the
customers it comes from?
More research, thinking
and legislation is needed to effectively address them.
Looking beyond ownership,
the data deluge leads to another challenge: how to generate valuable insights
from the wealth of data. The quantity of IoT data being gathered is too massive
to be sent back to a centralized data center. The world of “real-time” analysis
is upon us and growing exponentially, and organizations need to determine how
best to harness the information and convert it into actionable insights.
Journey Mapping and the IoT: Remember the 3 P's
As companies develop
their customer strategy, journey mapping is one process that has helped my
clients effectively leverage data. Journey mapping helps them gain a clear
understanding of what people who utilize their products or services experience
— while taking into consideration current devices, future IoT innovation that
will continue to make smart devices “smarter,” and channels that will
potentially be a part of the journey.
As businesses conduct
their journey mapping exercise, it’s critical to include the “3 P's” —
proactive, predictive and personalized experiences — as part of the
examination. Below I’ve outlined each as they relate to the IoT omnichannel
evolution and the advanced solutions that are quickly becoming critical for
long-term viability.
Proactive Experiences
Most interactions begin
with customers initiating action, either through the use or purchase of a
product or a service. With IoT integration, this can be flipped: systems can
proactively initiate actions based on the data being captured on a continuous
basis. In the industrial manufacturing industry, for example, IoT solutions can
now forecast maintenance problems or determine the remaining useful life of a
component or machine critical for production. Timing for replacement can be
proactively suggested to users thanks to sensors. An application such as this
gives manufacturers the ability to avoid expensive downtime and greatly improve
the customer experience.
Predictive Experiences
IoT can help predict
and/or preempt customer actions based on captured data and real-time access to
data models in the cloud. Consider connected cars, which are essentially
becoming another digital platform that runs software for improving all aspects
of the driving experience. Eventually, IoT applications will predict driver
actions at a rate that will help make autonomous vehicles safer. Sensor data
from radar, cameras and night vision are already playing a hand in predicting driver
actions and helping drivers prevent accidents.
Personalized Experiences
Providing content that
resonates, engages and gives customers a sense of satisfaction throughout their
experience, from the moment they conduct a search or interact with a product to
the end of their customer journey, should be a major consideration for any
company. Personalization can create a more satisfying customer experience,
while facilitating higher unit sales, and IoT enables this personalization by
capturing user behavior and preferences seamlessly. For example, if a customer
has been browsing for an item online, they can be convinced to purchase it by
being offered a special bundle on that item and a related accessory when they
enter the store — a case of smart proximity marketing. IoT is on track to
further enhance personalization for retail and beyond by tapping into the well
of data from devices such as smartwatches, door locks, appliances, security
systems and more.
When we think about
companies that are already providing “3P” experiences, the big tech disruptors immediately come to mind. These companies are
investing in ways to capture customers’ eyeballs and stay with them throughout
the day with relevant experiences. An example of this is the connected home,
where digital devices created by innovative companies are on target to provide
more and more services — from the ability to “talk” to smart devices and
appliances within the home to making proactive shopping offers and suggesting
banking options.
This Trend Isn't Going Away
IoT technology is by no
means perfect, but holds a lot of promise and potential. Questions remain
around data ownership, and there’s no easy solution “yet” for processing and
analyzing the vast amount of data that IoT devices are producing to gain
actionable insights.
That said, the IoT
omnichannel evolution is here, and it’s gaining traction quickly. You don’t
need to be a tech giant to provide the “3P” experience — you just need to be
smart when it comes to the strategy, including journey mapping.
About Us
TMA Solutions was
established in 1997 to provide quality software outsourcing services to leading
companies worldwide. We are one of the largest software outsourcing companies
in Vietnam with 2,400 engineers. Our engineering team was selected from a large
pool of Vietnam IT resources; they are well-trained and have successfully
completed many large and complex projects.
No comments:
Post a Comment