Four IoT Customer Support Strategies For Innovative Businesses

Never before is customer service more important than in our technological world. It's reminiscent of the old saying, ”It’s not a matter of if it will go wrong, but when it will go wrong.” I know what you’re saying. We have all the information we need to help the customer. Our support team can fix the problem. So I would answer yes, you do have the data. But people don’t want data. They want people to give them honest answers in a simple language they can understand. 

Four Customer Service Strategies

Transparency

Transparent conversations with your customers are necessary to tell them what the issue is and how to solve it. This may sound simple enough, but over 30% of customers start by going to youtube to solve their product issues. The second thing a customer does is phone a friend to help them. Then customers call the support center. When a customer calls in, your support rep needs to be overly communicative to make the customer happy. Don’t hide anything from the customer. Make it clear, so they feel they’re being listened to. It will make the customer feel valued to continue their relations with your business.

Training

Most experts will tell you higher qualified people for your support teams, but every business would do it if it were that easy. However, finding the right people is hard. My experience is that I want to hire a person with a great attitude over someone who thinks their experience will carry them through. Don’t get me wrong, hiring qualified people is essential but hire people with great attitudes who are willing to learn. IoT technology is changing every day, and your support team needs to be trained frequently. Your support team needs to know, and have hiring qualified people is not always the answer. People who are willing to learn are the answer.

Proactive Support

I have covered this many times in past blogs. You have the answers on social media, data, support forums, and chats. Please don’t waste this information; get out in front of it. The customer who gives you a one-star review. Have one of your support teams reach out to them. Find out why the experience was terrible and offer a way to fix it. Your customer data is a goldmine of information; take it and share it with other teams like software development, engineering, marketing, sales. Let everyone know what the data is showing and how the company can improve on the product.

IoT: An Innovation Ecosystem

Making your product better takes customers, engineering, software development, sales, and marketing. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and go to others in similar situations and businesses. What makes IoT innovative is people thinking about how to make technology better. Take the time to see what’s going on with technology. Most IoT projects fail because companies put blinders on and stay in their tiny little ecosystem. It would be best to expand your business’s ecosystem to see what other innovators are doing worldwide.

Innovation has many strategies to guide your business's success. However, having a successful support strategy is more and as crucial as your innovative product. Remember to support your development and your support team as an investment in your more comprehensive strategy.