How the Internet of Things will transform customer interaction Posted on : Jul 03 - 2015

In the last year alone, some 4 billion mobile devices have come online, according to Cisco. Intel predicts that number could reach as high as 200 billion in less than five years, and by 2020 there will be roughly 26 smart objects per human. Anyone who thinks that the Internet of Things (IoT) isn't going to touch their lives, think again!

The first challenge when planning an IoT strategy is understanding what it is and what it isn’t. The digital world is converging with the physical world, and this emerging practice, known as the Internet of Things, represents the next era of customer analytics. It is one in which just about anything can be connected, through sensors and data, to other objects, environments, people, and of course, the Internet.

As a general description it is fair to describe IoT as 'The interconnection and interaction of the digital and physical worlds, wherein uniquely identifiable embedded technology connects and integrates physical ‘things’ to information networks via existing and emerging Internet infrastructure'.

IoT is a platform for connecting people, objects, and environments to serve, inform and enable visibility, engagement, and innovation.

So, what does this mean to customer engagement? We can look at it in many ways as it has many forms of life but for me the key value is in enriching experiences and personalising engagements.

Let’s consider a couple of use cases to illustrate the possibilities.

Many of us already have a wearable fitness tracker to monitor our exercise but the real value could come when biometric sensor data in the tracker can connect to a post-surgical recovery plan, communicate healing progress back to the surgeon in real time, showing how the patient’s progress compares to other patients’, helping the surgeon to suggest more effective ways to expedite healing and mobility and avoid increases in long term medical insurance premiums.  View more