The IoT (Internet of Things) is without question one of the most discussed tech trends in recent times, and the industry is only scratching the surface of its potential today. One oft-cited benefit of developing an enterprise IoT strategy is the ability to collect and analyze massive amounts of data.
When it comes to marketing and customer experience, however, insights derived from aggregate data sets only deliver so much value. The potential IoT holds for CX lies in mass personalization of marketing—the ability to deliver relevant and timely messages to customers in a highly granular fashion.
Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Dr. Natalie Petouhoff, along with Constellation Research founder and CEO R "Ray" Wang, explores this topic in depth in a new report, "The Algorithm of You: How IoT Transforms and Differentiates Customer Experience":
Companies use “the algorithm of you” to collect and process a myriad of data on each customer and potential customer via the IoT. This allows companies to know customers and prospects better and to deliver offers, products and services that are relevant and in context to clients’ real-time needs and desires via channels and devices customers prefer. ... In turn, these IoT-enhanced customer experiences, designed to impress, amuse and increase the customers’ loyalty to a brand’s products and/or services, will allow companies to gain more revenue and deliver on the promise of the brand.
Mass Personalization Is the New Reality for Marketers
Applying IoT to your enterprise's marketing efforts isn't really optional in today's climate, as Petouhoff and Wang write:
Customers today are very picky. They want brands to know them and know what is important to them. They may be loyal, but that loyalty can be fleeting. If the customer experience is poor at any point in the customer journey, the brand loyalty is in jeopardy. If the brand loses that customer loyalty due to a poor customer experience, the once loyal customer is hard to win back. IoT can provide brands with the information they need to understand where they are going wrong with the customer experience and make changes.
IoT Can Drive Customer Loyalty and Revenue
Another benefit of mass personalization through IoT is increased customer loyalty, as Petouhouff and Wang note:
For example, a retail brand can use IoT analytics to predict which customers will respond to a variety of offers. When those analytics are streaming, sales associates and systems can make an offer when a customer
walks into a store, visits the website, or opens the mobile app. This specialized, personalized attention drives customer loyalty. Why? Customers prefer to shop with a brand that knows them, knows what they need and want,
and delivers it. Customer lifetime value, a measure of how long a customer purchases from a company and how much their purchases increase over time, is increased when a customer is more loyal. The higher the overall customer loyalty, the higher the brand’s revenue.
An excerpt of the full report, which also provides a framework for how a company can develop an IoT-driven CX strategy, is available at this link.
