The Internet of Things (IoT) has been such a game changer for enterprises worldwide that it has seen one of the widest adoptions among new-age technologies that we come across today. So much so, that the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is projected to become a $263.4 Billion market by 2027. Among industries, manufacturing is leading the way followed by transportation, IT, healthcare, retail, and others.
With IoT, enterprises have managed to convert their products to smart offerings, imparting powerful features which have increased usability as well as productivity. Additionally, they are providing companies with much-needed data on the various ways these products are being used to understand customers better, take proactive measures toward maintenance and repair, and reach out to users with personalized offerings. Such measures go a long way to improving customer experience and enhancing the loyalty of customers towards the brand.
Such brand value also enables business leaders to start building an ecosystem around their products as getting customers hooked to one product can lead to recommending more of the same brand to them and tying them all together resulting in a superior experience across the board. In this post, we will look at 10 ways in which IoT can help businesses build a stronger reputation and increase opportunities to upsell and cross-sell.
Let’s see the ways of transforming IOT in the form of CX and Enable Upsell/Cross-sell.
10 Novel Ways in Which IoT Can Help You Transform CX and Enable Upsell/Cross-sell
1. In-depth Analytics:
Prior to IoT innovation, enterprises would sell a finished product that, once it left the warehouse, was virtually untraceable. Companies had no idea how consumers were using it and the onus was on customers to report issues/communicate with the manufacturers. However, with IoT, products can now be augmented with smart capabilities which record usage patterns, generate diagnostic reports, and allow companies to take corrective actions.
We enabled Mann Hummel to improve their filtering solutions with smart capabilities which gathered information on customer experience and based on that, added features that removed a bunch of manual tasks the customer had to perform. This delivered significant additional value to their customers, which naturally reflected in their revenues and reach. their sales significantly and helped them reduce operational costs by a big margin. It all came back to using data to eliminate customer pain points as far as possible. The solution was a strategic blend of IoT and enterprise mobility.
2. Predictive Maintenance:
As devices get smarter, they are reminding users about maintenance, predicting malfunctions with greater accuracy, and helping to avert disasters in time. Gas pipelines, water supply systems, electricity grids, and more are now able to alert administrators about leakages and outages and also shut systems down immediately to aid repairs. A boost in predictive maintenance is also helping companies extend better customer service by staying up to speed with the conditions of every product.
3. Personalized Recommendations:
With customer usage patterns and preferences becoming clear to enterprises, they are now able to better understand at what times their customers are most active, what features and services they are looking for and provide recommendations accordingly. Even the devices can be programmed to behave in certain ways depending on how they are being used, hence elevating the experience for customers.
4. Building an Ecosystem:
Continuing from the last point, once companies get a clearer idea of what customers really want in terms of additional products and services, they can start building an ecosystem of such products so they can recommend the same to customers and get them further invested in their brand. These could include connected hardware that enables users to do more than the basic functionalities, subscription-based software and storage facilities that sync with devices and enable customers to access them anywhere/anytime, an online store that intelligently recommends products based on data-driven insights, and more. All this facilitates the opening up of new lines of business and multiplied profits.
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5. Remote Monitoring and Interactions:
Largely used in healthcare and a few other industries too, the ability of IoT to track user data and communicate with remote servers helps facilities to monitor health conditions and other details, employ mechanisms to generate alerts in case of abnormal readings, and help consumers connect with specialists from the comfort of their homes.
6. Smart Retail:
for retail enterprises, IoT presents a range of exciting opportunities to convert traditional brick-and-mortar stores to connected hubs featuring several customer-centric features. Using proximity marketing, retailers can notify customers when they get close to products of brands they like, smart shelves dynamically update staff in the back end on restocking items and heat maps help floor managers understand which parts of the store are seeing the most customer traffic so they can strategically arrange products on that basis.
7. Smart Agriculture:
In the agriculture industry, IoT can significantly improve the experience of adopters in the way farming is approached. By predicting weather conditions based on rapid and accurate data analysis, recommending the right crops, predicting yields, and facilitating supervision and maintenance with drones, IoT is set to transform agriculture which is much needed keeping in mind the rising demand for food globally.
8. Design Guidance:
By giving organizations vital insights into usage patterns, IoT helps digital strategists craft seamless user journeys while designing products. As consumers interact with various touch points and enterprises track possible frictions along the way, it helps them understand possible navigation issues which can then be ironed out in subsequent releases.
9. Feature Pipeline:
This again is always a direct result of staying in touch with and studying customers. By understanding what features, they are interacting with the most and what they would like to see improved, companies can create an effective pipeline of new features to be added through software updates. This helps keep the products relevant as well as delight customers with constant improvements to their experience of using them.
10. Greater Automation:
A strategic combination of IoT and AI can automate a lot of repetitive tasks, relegating them to robots. This technology, known as robotic process automation (RPA) is one of the hottest new trends, enabling major enterprises to cut costs, achieve greater automation, and efficiency, and eliminate errors, thereby producing fast output and improving customer experience in a major way.
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The future is full of exciting possibilities when it comes to IOT like smart city, home automation, IOT implemented Data Analytics, cloud computing, Network Security, etc. On the horizon, we have many new innovations and futuristic products. However, at the core of all the innovation, CX will always take center stage and we can’t wait to see how easier our lives get when legacy offerings from various enterprises hit the market in new shapes and forms. To know more about our Internet of Things services and how they help you transform your business, get in touch and we would love to talk!
