The sudden change from last year till this moment has been an unprepared revolution for every business sector. And the probability that your business will survive now and in the future depends on how you can quickly adapt and flow with the new trend in technology.

Internet of things is a network of internet-connected devices that are able to collect and exchange data across a network. So it becomes a great deal for every business leader to understand the importance of IoT in their organizations and how to make use of the best of it.

In recent years customers’ expectations are changing from having a better experience to having the best experience. From fast deliveries to high efficient logistics and supply chain operations, to new mobile payment services and digital assistance. Consumers are largely engaging with their favorite brands digitally because they are able to get reasonable feedback and updates about their products.

However, businesses that don’t think about infrastructure optimization as it relates to digital platforms, mobility, and the Internet of Things (IoT) will be left out. IoT is set to have a rising effect on business success and delivers constant feedback to facilitate better decision-making for businesses of all sizes.

In fact, a survey by KMPG shows that IoT is the top technology that will unlock massive opportunities in several business sectors, stating the fact that 17 percent of global respondents identified IoT as the top technology game-changer in driving business transformation.

By incorporating the IoT, it is possible to not just improve sales but even enhance customer experience.

Continue reading as we discuss how IoT is optimizing customers' experience in every business sector.

1. Builds special relationships between employees and customers

IoT software and appliances allow workers to accomplish large-scale tasks in a faster and error-free way which gives a better customer experience.“Happy employees drive happy customers” may sound like a marketing adage. However, several studies revealed that engaged employees are more productive, resulting in lower turnover as well as notable reductions in recruitment and training costs.

The key to a happy employee involves equipping them with critical information at the right time and empowering them to take appropriate action. IoT incorporates multiple new sources of data to increase an organization’s existing view of the customer.

This provides contextual information enabling support staff to engage and personalize interactions with their customers proactively.

In fact, more than 35% of organizations also concurred with the high impact on increasing employee productivity followed by nearly 33% experiencing a high impact on increased operational efficiency and brand equity.

2. Sales automation

This is an improvement in IoT, showing a type of software or tools that enable companies to standardize and automate the entire sales process. Imagine you visit a clothing store, grab the product you need, and walk out straight without having to queue for payment.

The sensor automatically detects the barcodes, scans the product bought and charges the cost directly from your bank account. You save your company the stress of labor costs and your customer can maximize their time to do other things.

This is not just a great way of optimizing your customer’s experience, but also a great way of minimizing cost, improving market transparency, and allows you to focus on business and service development.

3. Optimizing customers reliability

Until recently, organizations’ interactions with customers have been limited to point of sale or contact centers. Recent developments in IoT are allowing organizations to access valuable insights on customers including purchase patterns, satisfaction drivers, and geographical locations. Organizations are already leveraging these insights to offer improved products and reliable services.

For example, IoT has made a huge impact through the digital wireless sensor that provides the speed at which the car is moving, it also provides the sender with the information on the cargo route.

This has helped vehicle transport services to rely on fast and reliable transportation options, and to ensure safe and sufficient delivery of customers’ vehicles. The interesting part is that digital technologies like sensors, machine learning, and the internet of things (IoT) allow these vehicle shipping companies to know exactly where every truck in their fleet is and when it will arrive at the ‘designated destination’.

This marks just the beginning of the potential IoT has to improve the overall customer experience. IoT offers immense opportunities for organizations to establish deeper customer relationships by providing valuable intelligence to enhance customer service, helping them to build trust and loyalty, and creating new revenue streams.

4. Optimize product performance

When it comes to checking product performance, IoT allows you to collate a lot of data from your customers to know how you can improve the overall value of a product based on the data you get about its usage.

Data obtained from sensors of various devices can be analyzed, and finally, insights into customer behavior ensure the ability to adapt products to customer needs, thus enabling the design of interactions maximizing the delivery of positive experiences.

This can help you optimize the operations of the product which, in turn, helps your customer’s performance and also strengthens your relationships with them.

5. Develop new products

The data collected can be used to bring out a new product that will drive more interest in your customers. Just like a company producing several things you can figure out what part of your product needs special improvement and pass the information to your product development team.

With the data collated through the help of IoT, your product development team can figure out what exactly should be done to improve the existing product and develop a new one.

However, this will ensure that the customers always have the best possible updated configurations of the product.

Finally...

Lack of understanding about the benefits IoT brings into customers’ experience is the largest restraint limiting organizations from implementing IoT.

This is understandable, as the value of IoT in the context of customers’ experience has not been clearly articulated in the industry. Solution providers and ecosystem participants need to build greater awareness about the benefits and communicate a clear value proposition to entice organizations.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.