CRM of Everything

The “technological consumer” is becoming wiser and therefore more critical. That is not a secret and nothing new. Consumers gather information more and more easily; read reviews, compare prices and “requirements” for an ever better service (customer experience). This forces us to bring ever better, fairer products and services to the market.

This development goes hand in hand with technological (r) evolution. In this blog, we take a closer look at the influence of IoT on Service, Sales and Marketing. What influence does IoT have on these pillars? What can organizations do in the field of IoT? What is the added value? And what are the developments and the opportunities?

CRM of Everything

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has evolved over the past 20 years from operational to analytical, to social, to a “CRM of everything”. Internet of Things (IoT) is a major cause of the last step; “CRM of everything”. More and more products are being marketed with network connectivity. Cisco predicts that 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. By 2022, experts say 1 trillion sensors will be integrated into the world around us. This number could grow to 45 trillion within the next 20 years. The developments in the field of IoT are breathing new life into CRM, in which people and their interaction with devices are central.

IoT in CRM

The strength of IoT in combination with CRM lies in the fact that you bundle historical customer data and real-time data from “Things”. This data offers new insights that you can use in real time to perform customer-oriented actions. You can also use this data at a later time, as soon as the right circumstances (context) arise. Based on customer behavior, geolocation, usage patterns and needs, you create new opportunities in both Service, Sales and marketing areas. This not only ensures an optimal Customer Experience, but also new sources of income.

IoT in Service & Support

It’s all about the (sensor) data

Service quality is significantly improved through the use of IoT. Consider, for example, the integration of real-time sensor data with your business systems and processes.

By properly integrating IoT with your services:

• You quickly gain insight into what is going on through smart integrations with sensors (automatic diagnosis).
• You predict technical issues and act preventively. By applying Machine Learning to the sensor data, your database “learns” and grows. Sensor data signals at an early stage that a technical issue will arise within a foreseeable period. As a result, the solution is already known for the future issue and you can act quickly or preventively.
• Provide your service technicians with all diagnostic information, including sensor data, GPS location and other contextual data. This ensures a more efficient and therefore cheaper service.
• Reduce your downtime and improve the customer experience. Proactive maintenance and support mean fewer calls to customer service. When a customer does call, the customer service employee also has a good insight into the cause of the problem thanks to all the bundled real-time data.
• Create your customer retention. Through IoT data and historical customer data, the organization can predict at an early stage when a customer might switch to a competitor. Early measures can then prevent this.

IoT in Sales

IoT also offers opportunities and possibilities in the sales area. Think of cross-selling and up-selling. By using IoT smartly during your sales cycle:

• You better meet the needs and preferences of your customers. By linking IoT data from the customer’s used products to historical CRM data, you can automatically select and offer the right product or service as soon as a customer visits the store or online shop; Amazon is a good example of this. Amazon uses the customer searches via Alexa voice technology to enrich customer profiles.
• Change your Real-time prices based on supply and demand. Real-time pricing is currently used within various industries. Uber is a great example of real-time pricing. During peak hours, the prices of Uber taxis are automatically adjusted.
• Create your smart orders. Consider, for example, organizations such as Amazon or services that work on a subscription basis. Here, the IoT data is used to create an automatic order. Is the printer running out of ink? Then a new order is automatically placed and sent to the correct address.

IoT in Marketing

Good performance of marketing campaigns in a time where customers are technologically advanced is increasingly important. IoT also offers opportunities for advanced marketing. Real-time marketing is a specialized field. Below in a nutshell the added value of IoT within marketing:

• By making smart use of geolocation, current context, purchase and usage patterns,