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The Gist
- Critical CX. High-quality customer experience drives over two-thirds of brand loyalty.
- Rapid connectivity. IoT integration shapes operations around customer satisfaction.
- Real-time insights. IoT-enabled connectivity provides in-the-moment data for improved decision-making.
Now more than ever, offering a seamless and personalized customer experience (CX) is critical for building revenue and rising above industry competition. Gartner research found that a high-quality CX drives over two-thirds of today’s brand loyalty levels — holding more influence than brand reputation and price combined. In addition, Harvard Business Review research shows that companies with the highest customer satisfaction ratings have generated twice as much shareholder value over the last 10 years.
After all, it takes just one negative experience for the average consumer to stop doing business with a brand … for good. Given the conditions of our current market environment, organizations simply can’t afford a poor CX that puts their profit margins in jeopardy amid the economic downturn. The proliferation of smart technology coupled with widespread shifts to digitalization have fundamentally shifted customer demands.
However, through the integrated adoption of internet of things (IoT)-enabled connectivity, enterprise leaders can integrate a proactive CX framework that shapes all aspects of operations around delivering on customer satisfaction.
Growing Rates of Connectivity
With rapid rates of growth in the number of connected devices, everything around us is becoming infused with intelligence. Cities around the US are getting smarter as municipalities collect more and more data from people, devices, buildings and assets. This data fuels IoT engines with the information necessary to produce descriptive insight and digital decisioning for better management of water systems, transportation networks, and educational infrastructure.
Tracking devices and sensors deployed on vehicles are improving route management, bringing greater efficiency to package delivery while offering increased transparency to consumers who want the confidence of knowing where their packages are and when they can expect to receive them. Even the way people opt into employment is transforming. A more connected workforce creates opportunities for fractionalized labor that helps companies easily staff according to demand while giving workers more flexibility that aligns with their lifestyles.
Innovations by the companies at the forefront of IoT connectivity affect customer expectations dramatically, raising the bar for customer experiences across industries. Consumers and employees alike demand seamless experiences that deliver personalization and speed previously unknown to the market.
Related Article: Why Ignoring IoT-Enabled Customer Experiences Could Cost You
Evolution of Customer Experience Improvement Initiatives
Traditional methods of experimentation that allow organizations to better understand the behaviors, preferences and demands of customers include surveys, A/B testing, focus groups, multivariate testing and user testing. Although these methods have their place within CX improvement initiatives, the time-to-value for the company engaging in these approaches may be too slow to keep up with the increasingly fast pace of today’s customer expectations. For example, last quarter’s insights aren’t good enough to inform this quarter’s decision-making process.
On the other hand, IoT-enabled connectivity provides real-time data available for in-the-moment triangulation with advanced analytics that generate descriptive insights and prescriptive workflows — tools that employees at all levels of the organization can use to confidently ensure their actions have a direct impact on meeting the demands and desired outcomes of consumers.
Related Article: Why IoT Can Be a Game-Changer for Digital Customer Experience
Informing Every Touchpoint in the Customer Journey
IoT enables businesses to create more touchpoints with consumers by gathering data on how products and services are being used in the real world. With greater connectivity comes increased capabilities to analyze usage patterns, identify personalization opportunities and respond faster to consumer demands.
For example, smart refrigerators track which food products are running low, automatically ordering more before the product runs out. This activity creates a touchpoint between the customer and the grocery store, which can send targeted promotions and recommendations based on individual purchasing habits and preferences.
Wearable fitness trackers provide another example — the collection of health data allows healthcare and wellness organizations to personalize fitness and nutrition strategies that individuals can subscribe to, generating ongoing expected touchpoints on a consistent basis. One-size-fits-all products and services are no match for offerings that are informed by personalized data and crafted with the specific needs and desires of the customer in mind.
Visualizing Data for Easy Renewal Decisions
On both the consumer and B2B side, the proliferation of subscription and “as-a-service” products has made the practice of renewal management and churn mitigation increasingly integral to business success. IoT collects enormous amounts of data; however, that data is useless unless it’s presented in a way that makes insights self-evident to the user.
Just like the value that is created when IoT is paired with prescriptive workflows for employees in need of guidance, so too is the value that users receive when their progress on desired outcomes is visualized with interactive dashboards, compelling infographics, informative videos and accurate alerting and notification systems. Spreadsheet-based reports are open to individual interpretation as well as being too cumbersome to sift through for fast-paced professionals in need of understanding their progress — whether it’s progress toward a business key performance indicator (KPI) at the office, an operational efficiency target on the floor, or a personal goal related to health, relationships, or finances. Persuasive visualization of data quickly communicates the value of the service someone is subscribed to, compelling them to renew and creating the anticipation of seeing ongoing and consistent results.
The potential connectivity available to enterprises today creates an exigency for executives and operational leaders to act. Failure to do so will result in missed opportunities for revenue generation and margin improvement. Personalized customer experiences are built on the backbone of IoT-enabled connectivity that fuels real-time improvements to the customer journey. The current competitive market demands that enterprises take every advantage available to them as they fight for brand loyalty and share of customer satisfaction.
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