IoT or the Internet of things has emerged as the most promising technology to process information about various things around us. It is capable of processing information about non-living objects and goods with the help of motion sensors, RFID tags, QR Codes, etc. Internet of Things by utilizing an array of different technologies such as RFID tags, QR Codes, and sensors attached to goods and devices can read and transmit information in encoded form. The processing of this information largely depends on connectivity solutions such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.
CRM or Customer Relationship Management, on the other hand, uses customer data to decipher insights regarding customer behavior and market segments. This data mining to derive customer insights helps to target customers with effective campaigns.
Now thanks to IoT, gathering customer information and processing them has become easier than ever before. The customer data can be gathered, processed and utilized for generating useful insights in a never-before way. There are many ways both IoT and CRM by joining hands can revolutionize business processes and customer service.
The Combined Power of IoT and CRM
IoT or Internet of Things establishes the connection of the devices through the internet while CRM represents the collection of customer data through the process of data mining and delivers useful insight about the customer behavior that can be utilized for segmenting the market and targeting the customers more effectively. With the help of IoT, CRM or customer relationship management process can gather more relevant customer information for segmenting customers and targeting the audience more precisely.
According to a recent report published by Gartner, CRM will be at the center stage of the digital initiatives for several years to come. The beneficiaries of CRM solutions range across small businesses and startups, leading industries looking for large scale solutions and aspiring brands who want to scale up their business by targeting an audience in new areas and new niches.
For small businesses and startups, CRM helps to be precise in respect of targeting the audience and making most of the business opportunities. It also helps the employees to stay focused on the critical business areas that require immediate measures. On the other hand, for established brands and top business brands CRM always helps in retaining customers and targeting new customers with appropriate measures based on data-driven insights.
The role of IoT and CRM can be particularly envisaged in the area of customer service. Since customer service as a prominent aspect for any business brand always plays a key role in influencing and balancing business growth, more informed CRM powered with data-driven insights is key to their success. Often the satisfaction level of the customers is proportional to the crucial business decisions that are taken to address the customer needs and pain points.
Since customer acquisition is often more expensive than retaining older customers, most brands should focus primarily on delivering better customer service and retaining customers. Now, great customer service must take the tech-savvy customers and their increasing social media involvement into consideration for reducing customer concerns and pain points and delivering better customer experience. This is where the power of IoT for processing information comes into play.
Let us have a look at the most critical ways the joint power of IoT and CRM can revolutionize customer service and boost customer satisfaction in a never-before manner.
Improving Customer Service
What happens if you can fix the errors and shortcomings in your products long before the customer detects them. Well, that is an advanced approach to make the customer experience better. Since no product in the market can be completely error-free and since customer complaints always create a nightmare for the customer service and marketing executives just because of the negative impact it can cause, every business has to take these errors and pain points seriously.
The right integration of CRM and IoT can help push away all major lapses that are responsible for demotivating a customer in making more purchases from the same business brand. No wonder, many top manufacturer brands all over the globe are already taking advantage of bringing together CRM with the IoT. This allows them to collect the most relevant customer data along with customer preferred specs of the devices.
Boosting Self-service
Every business with the help of technology wants to facilitate self-servicing customer service procedures to make things easier for the support process besides reducing cost and improving response time. But still, for most brands, self-service support is not as satisfactory and effective as traditional customer service. The effort to implement self-servicing processes still couldn’t yield as satisfactory results as it was expected to yield.
The IoT inputs in this respect can prove to be highly beneficial. Detecting a malfunction in the system based on collected data through connected devices can prove to be hugely helpful in customizing the customer service experience and solving customer problems.
A Boost in Personalization
We all know that CRMs performance always gets better with more volume of precision-driven data. Based on the data-driven insights about customer behavior the customer interaction can be tailored to the needs. By understanding customer behavior and preferences, business CRM can also unleash highly targeted campaigns leading to more financial returns. Moreover, real-time access to customer data can be utilized to run quick campaigns for influencing customers’ buying decisions.
Thanks to IoT, the businesses can have better access to customer data and can detect the issue corresponding to the data stream of the products and gadgets. In more than one way, this helps businesses address customer problems with precise and more accurate solutions in a timely manner.
Omnichannel Shopping Experience
The combined force of CRM and IoT can also deliver a highly immersive and omnichannel in-store shopping experience for the customers. Thanks to the data-driven inputs from the sensors and connected gadgets including the in-store payment terminals, connected carts, and the in-store camera systems the store owners can easily know the customer preferences and buying patterns. Based on these insights the stores can suggest products and buying options that are highly likely to make business conversions.
A Boost to Customer Retention
CRM solutions offer a complete and richer repertoire of customer information that can ensure improved customer understanding. The data fetched through the IoT gadgets and the customer data together build up a unique combined repository of data that can be utilized in detecting the pain points and changing customer behavior. These insights can be utilized in making strategic decisions for customer retention.
Conclusion
Both IoT and CRM stand as pretty irreplaceable elements in the scheme of things for modern business. The above-mentioned elucidation is a clear proof of the fact that their combined force will continue to play a decisive role in businesses of the future.
