There is rapid development in the field of Internet of Things (IoT). The technology helps to connect actuators and physical objects, and actuators to the internet. Today the IOT enables public-sector and businesses to create new and innovative business models, optimize performance and to manage their assets effectively.
Here are some of the ways in which the Internet of Things will impact a contact center.
The agent in a contact center can play a more specialized role
IoT raises several issues in a contact center which are technical in nature. At present, the basic queries are handled by the agents themselves while they transfer the more specific and complex inquiries to the concerned experts. Today, the devices have managed to successfully connect the world and the concentration is more on outbound and proactive communications. Thus, a contact center agent’s role may soon transform from being a general query handler to a specialist for a particular problem or product.
The extended service may soon have an enhanced business opportunity
Since there will be a proactive approach, large organizations will offer support in various tiers or hierarchies. The result will be an improved business opportunity to add values to the offerings made towards standard service. For instance, many organizations may start implementing warranty packages for extended periods. They can also start providing a process for monitoring sensitive applications for 24 hours. Like this, agents in whichever office they are located around the world will be brought in to manage and take necessary actions for escalations whenever required.
Preparedness of the businesses will be more
Today, an agent spends most of his or her time responding to the complaints or queries of the customers. During an interaction, a customer may be more informed than a contact center agent. But connected devices can access data on the go and enable a business to be better prepared when responding to customers. While the agents are engaged with the customers, they will be better equipped about the issues and may also have quick remedies with them or may start implementing them for a speedy problem resolution.
Problems can be automatically detected by the devices and communicated to a contact center
The implementation of IoT may have big impacts for the contact center. It will enable the organizations to automate their services. For example, if the heart monitor for a patient gets over-heated, an automatic request for service can be transmitted to the appropriate team.
The significance is there will be a shift in attitudes. Rather than purchasing any product, customers may buy a product with a built-in feature for getting customer service so that they are assured of getting the services well. Today contact centers have technically evolved for receiving communication from various channels. In the near future, there can an inclusion of an object-based communication channel that has to be embedded into a specific customer service.
Expansion of ‘multichannel’ challenge
While there are various large impacts that are expected out of IoT, the most obvious among them would be the expansion of the ‘multichannel’ challenges on the customer services and the contact center. At present, a customer may contact a contact center using his cell phone, landline number, laptop, or tablet. Customers may also use emails, video call or IM facility.
Amazon Mayday, for instance, has a feature wherein customer can just press a button gets connected to a video call with a contact center representative. The complications will no doubt be multiplied when customer will try to contact the contact center using a button in their car, toaster or refrigerator.
Huge volume of data will be a big help for improving customer experience
When a wider range of devices will be used by every customer, no doubt there will be bigger challenges and higher opportunities. The availability of data will be huge but if data management happens properly, it can add a lot of value to the contact center, as well as, customer experience. The contact center agents of an insurance company can easily find out how safely a customer is driving so that they can give an appropriate quote to such a person.
New regulations are required to be adhered to
The level of complexity will be higher in fields of data sharing and privacy, There may be several devices that will track the behavior and usage. So regulating them is important for getting proper data access and share them.
It may take some time for the best practices and regulations to be in place. But soon a time will come when proper regulations will be in place. There could also be some sort of compliance restrictions with respect to sensitive data. Until then, it is imperative that the companies act with caution as far as their customer data is concerned and maintain transparency about the data usage. They should also provide options to customers for opting out for not sharing their data.
