CRM and IoT, the buzz words of the 21st century, are now a reality and would soon bring the great industrial revolution across the globe. With the latest advancements in technology and the internet, it is not only the humans who are connected with the help of the internet, but also the devices which are getting connected via this marvel technology.
IoT(Internet of Things), one of the latest game-changers, is nowadays becoming a crucial technology in the different industries and integrating innovative ways to bring up the success of an organization.
Top Reasons Why IoT in CRM Will Influence Customer Engagement
IoT has a profound impact on the CRM as the immense IoT data containing customer information, and contextual inputs can drastically enhance the capabilities of IoT in CRM. This future of the CRM with artificial intelligence is supported by cognitive computing, deep industry knowledge, big data analytics, and functional business flows.
In the year 2014, according to the report of the Gartner, it is predicted that CRM will now be going to at the heart of the digital initiatives in the few coming years. This is one of the latest technology areas that will definitely get funding as digital business is crucial to remaining competitive. Moreover, later, it will also be added with the internet of things as the fifth driver of the CRM to the “Nexus of Force 6.” The other four drivers are cloud, social, mobile, and big data.
IoT in CRM offers the next level of maturity to the technology. CRM has seen the evolution in the last two decades: Operational to the Social and analytics, to now as the “CRM of everything” with the humans at the center.
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Make Self-service better
The current system of self-service is too cumbersome for most of the customers. They mostly prefer talking to a real person than pressing buttons and waiting for the options to be readout. The implementation of the smartphone trees might save a company some precious resources, but it even makes a bad experience among the customers.
You can detect a wide range of malfunction in your products with the data that is collected from the devices connected to the internet before the customer notices it and tailor the self-service experience to cater to the immediate customer problem. No more getting stuck in the high stuck maze of the phone-trees means much better experience with the self-service portals.
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Change prices as with demand
Having the information about the demand in the different market share makes it easier to change the cost of your products and get the most out of sales. This is even transformed totally with the real-time data stream from the wide range of outlets about the changes in demand.
You can change the pricing almost immediately according to the rise and fall in demand to get an edge over your competitors. This works exceptionally well with conscious price customers.
For example, let’s say, when the cricket in a particular outlet is high, then you can lower the cost to increase sales. Or at the time when a particular product is selling fast, then you can increase the prices to take advantage of that. On the spot discounts will even compel a customer data to rethink their shopping priorities and can even result in them buying more from your store than they originally intended.
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A higher degree of personalization
IoT and CRM software for small business works better with lots of information. When you have a very deep insight into customer behavior, you can tailor the interaction with the customer according to what they like the best. Understanding the behavior of customers also helps you to design highly targeted campaigns that will lead to more Return On Investment.
IoT gives you almost real-time access to the customer data that can be used to run a quick campaign to influence their decisions.
For the customer service, you have much more data about the customer and may already know what the issue is through the data stream from your products. This even helps you to understand the customer support better and solve their problems quickly and easily.
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Mold your marketing
IoT helps you to get the information that you need to understand which type of customer base is more interested in buying your products and hence is more valuable to the company. Then, you should focus on your marketing efforts towards this type of customers, which focuses less on those who give you a little to no business.
So, IoT offers the efficiency of your marketing department and even lets you make out the most by getting the message to the most receptive of the customer bases.
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Improve customer retention
Connecting different devices can help you to track which customers have reduced their visits to your stores, which is an essential data stream in terms of the retention of the customers. This data even helps you to recognize the products for which the customers are losing interest. Then, you can even give them incentives like discounts and special offers to keep them coming to your store.
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Internet-of-Things as the future of CRM
IoT is undoubtedly the advanced generation of the data acquisition system, and CRM software is a field which heavily works and relies on this latest technology. With the rise in the use of intelligent devices, the data stream from customers is even bound to rise too. The most intelligent thing to do for any company which is highly engaged in the IoT in CRM is to use this changing trend to their utmost advantage.
IoT is not a speculation of the things to keep on appearing; it is something that is already happening. There are some of the more devices on the market that come with the help of IoT connectivity. These are some of the constant sources of information. It will be a wise decision for any of the company to incorporate this rising trend into their IoT to get benefits of CRM software.
Conclusion
IoT is one of the essential trends of digitization today. Many of the business initiatives, which includes IoT in CRM, are to gain immense power from the increasing penetration of a wide range of connected devices in all spheres of life. IoT, as a new channel even holds with a lot of promise for the CRM. IoT in CRM coupled with the deep domain knowledge has the ability to transform CRM offer joyful customers experience.
Himanshu Singh is a Marketing Specialist at SoftwareSuggest, He is well versed in software platforms like eCommerce, project management, document management. He is also interested in domains like Machine Learning and Semiconductors. In his spare time, he enjoys Guitar, Badminton, and Photography.
