customer support in the age of iot
TRANSCRIPT
Shaping the Digital Future
Customer Support in the
Age of IoT Are vendors and service providers ready for the
IoT challenge?
Insights from the Call Center World 2016
February 2016
FLASH INSIGHT
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The Call Center World showed innovative tools for interaction with the end customer but a comprehensive concept for the age of IoT is not available yet. Key Take-Aways
1 The IoT brings new challenges for customer support With the IoT devices become fully connected and interoperating. Fault isolation and root cause analysis in
an IoT enabled Smart Home environment is many times more complicated for customer support units
than for standard home appliances.
Smart Home users on the contrary expect quick, uncomplicated, and competent support accessible
through any channel.
As a result, customer support units dealing with Smart Home users must workout ways to handle
increasing complexity and shorter innovation cycles at reasonable cost levels.
2 CCW showed innovations to improve interaction with customers Vendors and service providers understand the need to offer first-class customer experience at every point
of interaction.
New tools help speed up reaction time and promote omnichannel support.
Innovative technologies help intensify customer engagement through interaction enrichment throughout
the support process.
3 Overall concept for the age of IoT is not available yet In view of the growing complexity in their Smart Home end customers look for just one competent partner
who is capable of detecting the root cause as well as designing an appropriate solution to the problem.
To date there is no concept available handling the complexity arising from Smart Home installations
composed of a variety of products from multiple manufacturers by one customer support unit alone.
The customer support business in general has not tackled this challenge so far.
Source: Mücke, Sturm & Company
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With connected and interoperating devices in IoT, complexity in customer support operations increases fundamentally. Transformation from traditional customer support to support in an IoT environment
One vendor and contact point
B2C Customer Customer Support
(1st level)
Increasing complexity
Customer Support
(2nd/3rd level)
?
Traditional
customer
support
Customer support
in an IoT
environment
Many possible vendors and
contact points
Vendor 1 Vendor n
Vendor 3
Vendor 2
Situation
Customer support takes place in a
linear process between B2C
customers and vendors.
The B2C customer gets in contact
with the vendor of the respective
product.
Support is provided company-
internally or through dedicated
subcontractors.
Situation
Various vendors are involved via
their products within a complex eco
system.
The B2C customer or third parties
regularly work as system integrator.
As a consequence, responsibilities
are often unclear in a support case.
Collaboration between companies
within the ecosystem is necessary to
locate the problem and provide
support.
Source: Mücke, Sturm & Company
B2C Customer
Example: Smart Home as part of IoT
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Quick Support 1
Omnichannel-
Support 4
One Stop Only 2
Competence 3
While end customers set high expectations for customer support in the IoT age vendors are confronted with an increasing level of complexity. Antithesis: Simplicity for end customers generates complexity for vendors
Source: Mücke, Sturm & Company
End customers expect low complexity
in Smart Home-related support issues.
Vendors are confronted with increasing
complexity due to the connectivity of devices.
Customer
Support
vs.
End customer perspective: low complexity expected Vendor perspective: increasing complexity
Manufacturers
Devices
Software
Platforms
Configuration
Environment
Context
Mutu
ally
influ
encin
g
Execute
fault root
cause
analysis
B2C Customer
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The increasing digitalization and connectivity of devices results in significantly enhanced requirements for customer support. Expectations of end customers in a Smart Home context and consequences for vendors
Quick Support for Sensitive Issues
For problems such as “defect heating“ the
customer expects immediate assistance.
High availability, assisted support as well
as efficient self-support-options are critical
for success.
Cross-Vendor Support
Problem-localization and solution-finding
can only be managed across vendors for
connected devices.
Customers expect a competent and
overarching partner for all issues.
Navigator Through Complexity
Innovation and the variety of suppliers to
choose from complicate purchase decisions
End customers search for a system
integrator for all their Smart Home
components.
Omnichannel Support
Customers expect to use their prioritized
contact channel and want to be able to
switch channels, if necessary.
Support information has to be consistent
across all channels.
Customer Journey Alignment
Adapt contact channels and service
strategy to the position within the customer
journey.
Keep the customer support process flexible.
Handling Agent Role
Open up CS-interfaces and processes in
order to be able to cooperate with external
partners.
Enable information- and data-exchange
with other companies.
Knowledge Building and Qualification
Introduce innovative methods and tools for
an efficient qualification of customer support
staff.
Implement self-learning expert systems and
integrated data banks.
Consistent Service-Experience
Bundle information and knowledge in a
central hub.
Ensure seamless information flow and data
transfer along the entire process chain (bi-
directional).
Expectations of
end customers Consequences for vendors
in an IoT context
Source: Mücke, Sturm & Company
Quick Support 1
Omnichannel-
Support 4
One Stop Only 2
Competence 3
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The industry meeting for customer support CCW has shown, that an overarching concept for support in a Smart Home context is missing. MS&C conclusions from the CCW
There is a variety of innovative software solutions available helping optimize process
flow across all channels.
Latest innovations for interaction at frontends accelerate finding appropriate
solutions across several departments by integrating auto diagnosis results and self
help attempts.
An integrated concept for cross-vendor support of connected devices in a Smart
Home environment is currently not available.
First promising approaches focus on process automation empowered by machine
learning.
Modern Knowledge Management (KM) systems enable the customer support to
respond adequately to the current journey the customer is on.
But: the fast pace of innovation and growing complexity of the Smart Home market
can currently not be depicted by KM systems.
Click-to-call/-video and targeting strategies optimize the management of multiple
contact channels.
Innovative technologies enrich traditional channels such as hotline menus and
enhance customer engagement.
Source: Mücke, Sturm & Company
MS&C conclusions from the Call Center World (23.-25.02.2016) Smart Home
readiness
Quick Support 1
Omnichannel-
Support 4
One Stop Only 2
Competence 3
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Several companies have been identified on the CCW that support the idea of enhanced customer experience and engagement in a Smart Home context. Innovations from the Call Center World
Source: Mücke, Sturm & Company
MS&C favorite innovations
Cloud-based omni-channel contact
management platform with high
scalability
Central bundling of all contacts
Offers solutions for mobile digital
engagement in customer support.
Interaction takes places e.g. via
smartphone parallel to other channels.
Knowledge management software with the capacity to learning automatically from
customer interaction.
In first tests, the system achieved results comparable to human experts.
Enables interoperation of multiple
ticket-systems.
„Data-robots“ identify relevant informa-
tion from heterogeneous sources.
Bundling of knowledge from different
sources in a centralized data hub.
Simplifies agents’ search for causes
as well as definition of a valid solution.
Provides customer engagement in
real-time.
Users are identified by their usage
behavior and targeted via omnichannel.
All relevant information is delivered to
support staff automatically to speed up
customer interaction.
Aids proactive interaction
Most vendors serve
multiple dimensions
Quick Support 1
Omnichannel-
Support 4
One Stop Only 2
Competence 3
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If you would like to discuss the impact of the Internet of things on your business or the customer support market, please get in touch with us. Contact
The competence center was established in 2016 and
focusses the digital customer holistically over all „smart“
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The competence center concentrates on three core
topics:
Digital Transformation
Customer Experience Management
Customer Value Management
MS&C Competence Center “Digital Customer”
Nicolas Bell Associate Partner
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