IoT in customer service-benefits and disadvantages.

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a system of interrelated physical things or objects embedded with sensors, software, processing ability, and other technologies that connect, collect, and exchange data with other mechanical devices and systems over the internet.

Like other technologies, the IoT has both benefits and disadvantages to businesses. In this article, we shall explore the impact of IoT in customer service: both benefits and disadvantages.

Benefits of the IoT in Customer service

The incorporation of IoT in business operation and management can provide new customer insights and opportunities that the business can leverage to optimize business operations and decrease operating costs, among other benefits.

On specific viewpoints, the benefits of IoT to customer service are:

It improves staff productivity while reducing human labor: 

Through the Internet of Things (IoT), everyday business operations can be done automatically. Human resources can only handle more complex duties that need personal skills.

Automatic performance by the IoT devices increases customer satisfaction due to real-time services. Moreover, the staff is relieved of extensive duties. When the number of human resources is reduced, the cost of business operation also decreases, which is a positive aspect of the business.

It provides more and deeper business insights: 

The Internet of Things (IoT) assists businesses to gather data and customer intelligence for further analyses that would assist the customer relation department to have deeper insights about their business in relation to customer experiences and preferences.

This helps the business grow manifolds as it modernizes its operations that reduce their time to market for new products or services, thereby enhancing their return on investment, hence, success to the business.

It builds better business opportunities: 

IoT increases the effectiveness of the business and customer relations. A business that uses IoT technologies can offer various services or products to its customers. The business that uses IoT can also increase the quality of their products and services; thus, they easily edge out their competitors.

Also, a business that integrates IoT in its operations can attract more customers, clients, and partners because they can offer quality services even during challenging times of pandemics or economic distress, as the machines can perform tasks with human involvement.

It builds a more trustworthy image for the business:

IoT is a complex infrastructure requiring tech-savvy individuals to establish, run, and manage. Once a company integrates the IoT in its operation, it has to have a high profiled staff to manage its operations and build confidence and brand among customers, investors, and other business partners aware of the merits of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Disadvantages of IoT in Customer Service

Though IoT has several benefits, some businesses might only see its demerits to business set-ups and might not be persuaded to integrate IoT into their operations. Top of FormThe disadvantages include: 

It might experience security and privacy flaws: 

Inadequate security measures can let hackers gain access to the system to steal confidential customer and business information that can lead to serious consequences if made public or misused by the third party.

It relies heavily on the internet and cannot function effectively without it: 

The IoT is a highly interconnected system between several physical devices and access to the global network. To ensure effective and flawless customer services, the IoT infrastructure needs to ensure uninterrupted wired and wireless communication with high throughput, low latency, and constant access to the Internet. Any form of interruption will lead to widespread customer service interruption.

It requires highly skilled personnel to run and manage: 

It is very difficult to plan, build, manage, and enable a comprehensive technology to the complex IoT framework. Operationalizing IoT solutions in customer services requires highly competent and experienced professionals to work with the technology. This highly skilled personnel may be hard to get and recruit as they would need competitively high salaries, which increases the administrative cost for the customer relations department.

Conclusion

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the revolutionary digital technologies that would shape the future of businesses and work. It enhances customer relations and services, and its challenges can be well-managed to increase customer experience.