As the market is approaching towards the new era of Internet of Things (IoT), customer relationship management (CRM) is trending to a new direction. The advanced CRM solution takes customer service to the next level and provide better customer support. According to market research firm Gartner, more than 26 billion devices are going to be connected to the Internet by 2020. They provide huge opportunities to the companies to manage and monitor their client activities and the collected data is increasing used by the companies for automated customer support.
Since more and more devices are connected to the internet , they will enable new paradigm of services which was previously difficult to imagine. That’s why the customer support scenario has changed dramatically the way organizations market, sell, and provide support for products. Gartner has projected that IoT is going to be the fifth driver of CRM after social media, mobile, big data and cloud. The following section focuses this area.
“CRM will be at the heart of digital initiatives in coming years. This is one technology area that will definitely get funding as digital business is crucial to remaining competitive,” says Joanne M. Correia, research vice president at Gartner. “Hot areas for CRM investment include mobility, social media and technologies, Web analytics and ecommerce.”
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Impact of IOT on CRM solution: IOT technology embeds sensors in different consumer and industrial equipment like micro oven, fridge, car etc to make connections with the internet. Sales, marketing and customer service departments are the primary beneficiaries with IOT services because they promote, sell and support these new services, as per Gartner.
In the IOT era, CRM evolves further as companies change focus from products to service. This creates more customer-centric organizations that will be better equipped to deal with today’s digitally empowered customers and their rising expectations. According to market research firm Gartner, there will be more than 26 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020.
- Better customer support: Those million of embedded sensors transmit useful information remotely to the service provider. Those intelligent data are analyzed at the provider’s end to understand and automate the technical issues and future requirement of the customer.IOT enabled CRM application fixes the common problems with the customer service like long waiting period, lack of flexibility and delay in taking measures. Other benefits accruing to the consumers include immediate access to important maintenance information, faster repairs, and self-directed customer service.
- Boosts marketing promotion in real time: The advanced CRM solution in association with IOT enables the service provider to figure out location and context for their customers. This further enhances the opportunity to send real time promotions to the customer. The opportunity to send real-time promotions to customers has never been so greater. These promotions can no longer be the generic one, but , based on customers’ buying history, preferences and current context.
- Dynamic pricing: Once an organization has been able to conduct on-demand promotions in real time, they can use the live data feedback to determine the pricing at right time. Companies no longer have to depend on price optimization or statistical method. Now, the price is based on behaviors and events in real time. In addition, product pricing and services can be made specific to the individual client level.
- Looking for the future: Although, IOT powered CRM solution is available in the market, but, the system has to be simplified so that all of the devices can work together. Since, more and more IOT enabled devices are coming in the market, the demand for CRM for customer, acquisition and retention will grow further. The latest CRM technology already integrated Big data that is associated with the customers. However, the technology will evolve further by combining it with data from social media, devices and sensors in order to make more personalized customer experiences.
- CRM with Wearable Technology: Wearable provides real-time access to employees, prospects, customers, product or services information from any place at any time (online/offline mode). Furthermore, these devices can collect customer information like purchase behavior, location, activity, health indicators and hobbies. This provides further insights to the companies who can enrich themselves with the customer experience at every point of touch.
Companies can use the advanced technology to consistently enrich the customer experience at every touch point. Primarily, Wearable impacts sales because CRM systems typically provide companies with the ability to develop a holistic view of customers and generate actionable sales opportunities for the sales people which, in turn, improves Lead Conversion. However, in order to make the information available, you need third party integration with wearable device that gets the CRM data and displays it in real time.