If you are like other CX pros, at some point in your CX career you’ll encounter the “money question.” Your CEO will ask you: “What’s an improvement in our customers’ experience worth in dollars and cents?” And it’s likely that you won’t have a (good enough) answer, as 50% of CX leaders Forrester surveyed have not yet modelled how CX quality influences customer behaviour.
That’s how this article on Forbes magazine begins. Why? Because there are customer experiences to be improved, customers to be engaged and ROI to be delivered.
All that’s required is a meaningful connection. But how do marketers get to grips with the complexity of measuring and innovating in their customer experience?
With all the talk seeming to focus on the smart tech, intelligent retail, smart cities, we thought it would be a good idea to look on the simpler side of IoT. Where businesses should be looking to invest in the here and now.
Make Sensors Your Friend
Sensors can detect, identify and connect people to your brand via proximity. Providing there’s a network connection they essentially can turn inanimate objects into digital platforms through which to interact, engage and capture information from your audience.
- Apply a sensor to an object
- Create and transmit something people want and value
- Capture data from the interaction made
- Re-invest data into new more targeted and personalised experiences
As you can see, IoT enables a whole new type of measurement and engagement limited only by that of imagination.
Sensors enable. It’s important to realise that this is all they do.
What matters most is the value of experience they enable people to have. With every opportunity now a potential chance to engage, the challenge for brands is figuring out how to get permission to do so.
Take the example of the recently released BPme Fuel payment app. It enables customers to pay-at-pump, saving precious time, which something we really value. The customer experience is seamless (after a few teething problems), and has resulted in more visits to BP.
It’s also easy to see the commercial drivers behind this investment.
- It sidesteps the heavy capital investment of integrated payment pin-pads into fuel pumps
- It allows BP to learn about customer behaviour, purchase frequency and consumption habits
- It provides a more personalised, contextually aware channel to deliver promotional offers
The single biggest driver has to be the learnings that are possible from the customers that actually use the app. And being able to apply those learnings to improve customer experiences across the board.
Considering the needs states and designing a mobilty framework around those needs will allow brands to create shared value and encourage loyalty.
If you’re looking for a more in-depth primer on the Internet of Things, this report from Goldman Sachs points the way and also check out key developments at IoT Alliance Australia. And if you do embark on an IoT-enabled future, just remember not to do this “Ok Google”!
