We’ve all seen the commercials highlighting how the Internet of Things (IOT) has already changed the way we live our daily lives. If you leave your garage door open, a smartphone lets you close it with just a few taps. If you’re lost heading to a friend’s house, he can send the address to your car’s GPS. It’s amazing how we can benefit from the growing ubiquity of IoT. As a retailer, though, how exactly can you take advantage of this technology to improve the way you serve customers?
The answer touches a number of key areas. However, the most significant aspect may be IoT’s ability to make your customer service teams more proactive. With IoT and the data generated and shared from the products your customers use, your business can develop a more complete understanding of your existing customers, to serve and understand them more effectively. This allows retailers to stop reacting to customer issues and instead learn to anticipate their needs before they arise.
The CRM Of The Future
Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions are now at the core of operations for many retailers. Using CRM to manage customer and account data has enabled companies to better understand their customers and offer better service, tracking purchase information and other details.
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As IoT evolves and CRM solutions become increasingly integrated with other technologies, the data will give retailers incredible insights into customer habits, preferences, budget and even utilization. A retailer can program Internet-connected machines to transmit relevant data related to user health and utilization. Imagine a world, for example, where you can alert a customer to an issue with his or her thermostat or washing machine based solely on diagnostic information transmitted directly from the machine to your company’s CRM.
Retailers who sell less connected goods — clothing or other household items — can’t receive alerts from these products. However, they can benefit from the evolution of CRM and big data. Any opportunity to integrate more data into a CRM solution will make your business operate more efficiently and effectively.
A robust CRM solution can help sales and marketing employees develop comprehensive strategies to push your company closer to achieving strategic goals. When modern, advanced customer service is a companywide initiative, departments can support each other to understand customers better, anticipate their needs and questions and be prepared for whatever arises. CRM solutions connected to different devices automate the process of entering data and give a company a competitive differentiator by making service a responsibility for every employee.
Keeping It Personal
This level of customer service requires some kind of optional aspect for customers. If a user would rather not have the devices they purchase from you tracked, that’s their business. Issues related to consumer privacy are obviously a hot topic today. When customers give their consent, though, it enables customer service teams to personalize their approach to a remarkable degree.
IoT technology will keep relevant information coming from devices in use to raise service to another level. However, there are ways to automate data collection to improve customer service. Web retailers that require customer logins can track their browsing history on the site to gauge which products and services they may be interested in. And by integrating that data collection with a CRM and other tools, retailers can tailor and personalize email marketing and other campaigns for specific users.
To be competitive and attract consumers’ business, retailers — especially smaller vendors — must use available technology to stand out from impersonal big-box stores. Automating data collection and analysis is a positive, but it can’t replace the direct, personal touch smaller companies can provide.
Access to efficient tools and solutions can save employees time and enable them to get creative with customer service and other campaigns. Frequently, though, smaller retailers succeed because their customers trust them. Combine high-powered CRM with the human touch, and customers will keep coming back, whether they need maintenance or another item.
The biggest retailers in the world — Amazon, Target, Walmart and others — spend billions of dollars on big data and developing analytics to understand their audiences. But not every business needs a billion-dollar data strategy behind it to succeed. Retailers that commit to building out a robust CRM and using technology to their advantage are in a good position to compete against just about anyone.
Anthony Smith is the CEO of Insightly, a San Francisco-based SaaS CRM application. He built the first version of Insightly in six months from his home in Perth, Australia, after identifying a market need for a CRM solution focused on small business. He has previous experience designing and building CRM software for enterprise use. Prior to Insightly, Smith worked as a consultant for IBM and as a software engineer for global mining consultancy Snowden.
