Monetizing Customer

Satisfaction with IoT

Author:

Vishal Dhar

Co-Founder and President-Marketing

iYogi Inc
vishal@iyogi.com

Contents
Executive Summary .....................................................................................................................................3
Why Customer Support Often Disappoints.............................................................................4
How to Transform the Customer Support Experience..................................................5
Lower Costs through Support Automation .............................................................................6
Streamline Interactions via Knowledge Management ...................................................7
Spur Additional Purchases using Predictive Analytics...................................................8
Empower Agents with Asset Intelligence.................................................................................8
Customer Support through the Cloud Makes this Vision a Reality.....................9
Better Performing Contact Centers are more likely to be
Deployed on the Cloud ..........................................................................................................................10
Generate New Revenues in Three Ways ................................................................................11
Expand Services ............................................................................................................................................11
Convert out-of-scope calls into sales ........................................................................................12
Tap into the power of analytics........................................................................................................12
Introducing the Revolutionary Digital Service Cloud.....................................................13
Conclusion: Deploying IoT to Improve Customer Service
and Boost Profits ..........................................................................................................................................14

Executive Summary
Across industries, companies such as
retailers, original equipment
manufacturers, and other solution and
service providers are chasing the
seemingly elusive goal of converting
their contact centers into profit centers.
While customer retention is key to
profits, effective and efficient support
enables the experience that serves as
the catalyst for new revenues. Yet to
date, disjointed and ineffective
customer support technologies and
processes have hindered efforts to
deliver this level of experience.
Combine this with profit-margin
pressures on the products being sold
by these companies, and it's a recipe
for poor customer service and low
customer satisfaction. After all, when
profit margins are tight, manufacturers
cannot afford to spend much time
addressing post-sales customer issues.
This spurs them to focus on deflecting
support calls and disqualifying
customers from their service
entitlement.
Now a confluence of new technologies
and processes makes it possible to
deliver a level of service that satisfies
customers: support automation,
superior knowledge management

practices, predictive analytics, asset

intelligence, and a unique customer
support experience. All of this is
enabled by the latest cloud
technologies for cost-effective, superior
support that opens the door to new
revenue opportunities.
Today, after the Internet wave, we are
now entering the era of the Internet of
Things where common objects can
convey themselves across the Internet.
According to an article in Wired.com,
IoT isn't just coming soon; it's already
here, It's going to revolutionize the way
businesses interact with their
customers. Why? This is because realtime information increases customer
satisfaction, to make it simple and easy.

Any Device
Anywhere

Anytime

The Internet
of Things
Anyone

Any Network
Any Business

Why Customer Support

Often Disappoints
A superior customer experience
especially after the sale is central to
the survival and growth of a brand.
Delivering this experience hinges on
a few key milestones in a customer's
journey A frictionless point of entry
to service, a personal touch, and
timely service revolving around a
holistic and contextually accurate
view of the customer's situation.

Reliance on disjointed applications

and processes has made it nearly
Yet too many of us are familiar with this
impossible to deliver an experience
scenario:
that satisfies customer expectations

Failing to find an answer to our

and paves the way for an interaction
question from the vendor's online
that opens the door to new revenue
support center.
possibilities. A mish-mash of

Dialing a customer support number and

Interactive Voice Response (IVR),
feeling like we're jumping through
Computer Telephony Integration
hoops to reach the right department or
(CTI), and CRM applications and
person.
knowledge bases among others,
thwart efforts to enable the

Waiting on hold for an inordinate

seamless process and flow of
amount of time.
information needed to ensure a

Being asked to provide and repeat

highly satisfactory interaction. Such a
basic information that we expect the
non-optimal system leads to an
company to know.
experience that actually degrades

Experiencing frustration as issue

the customer's view of the solution
resolution drags on.
or service provider.

How to Transform the

Customer Support
Experience
Fortunately, the convergence
of new technologies and
practices enables a
transformative customer
support experience that makes
it possible for companies to
capitalize on the revenue-rich
potential of these interactions.
These technologies and
practices include support
automation, superior
knowledge management,
predictive analytics, and asset
intelligence, all underpinned by
a cloud delivery model.

Being Set Free by the Cloud

For years, companies have relied on
various enterprise software products
as the backbone of their support
operations. Painful and risky to
implement and integrate, these
products have played a large part in
poor support experiences. By
moving to Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS), companies can test the
possibilities of new technologies on a
low-risk, quick-to-deploy platform
rather than commit to a big-bang
project that puts them in jeopardy.

Drive
process
efficiencies

Transform
consumer
experiences

Manage
large-scale
operations

Lower Costs through

Support Automation
The first challenge with customer
support occurs at the point of
entry. Customers want to be heard,
whether they are talking directly to
a company or not. They also want
to start a support interaction as
easily as possible and avoid
working their way through a
complex phone menu and then
being shuffled from person to
person.

This new model helps lower costs in

three key ways:

With so much of the support process

is automated, companies save on
training the support personnel.

More quickly resolving issues

without compromising the support
experience results in lower average
handle times.

Because customer support agents

spend less time on troubleshooting,
they can spend more time engaging
the customer for possible cross-sells
or up-sells.

By embedding an easy-to-use interface

on the customer's desktop,
organizations can make it simple for
customers to initiate the support
experience. At the same time, by
analyzing the huge set of data
associated with all support interactions,
they can quickly and automatically
resolve common problems to ensure a
consistent support experience. Plus, by
alleviating support reps from answering
repetitive questions, companies free
them to resolve only the newest issues.

Streamline Interactions
via Knowledge
Management
Harvesting the knowledge that
flows through a support
department is critical to successful
customer support. As more issues
trickle in, a feedback loop in the
system should allow both
customers and support personnel
to take advantage of previous
customer interactions and issue
resolution. This replaces the
traditional approach of creating a
knowledge database by writing
articles that are reviewed by the
assigned personnel for approval.

desktop. In cases where agents cannot

find an answer to the issue, they can
either troubleshoot or escalate to a
more expert resource. Once the issue is
resolved, the resolution is fed into the
system. By converting agent
interactions with end users into
knowledge base articles, the entire
knowledge system evolves organically.
A vendor fielding a significant volume
of support calls within a short time
frame can quickly build up a valuable
knowledge base that truly enables
knowledge-centered support.

A modern knowledge management

solution works on the principle of
solve-and-evolve. When agents use
the system, they are guided to take
certain steps or are presented an
automated script they can execute,
such as to prevent an inordinate
number of pop-up boxes on a user's

Spur Additional
Purchases using
Predictive Analytics
The ideal support system should
provide insight into the customer's
profile and asset ownership along with
relevant operating environment details.
Based on this information, it should
deliver alerts and information
proactively to support agents so they
can offer assistance to customers about
situations that could potentially cause
problems. It can do so by analyzing the

vast repository of Big Data collected

from all customer interactions. For
example, it should be able to identify
and predict that a certain brand laptop
tends to fail after so many years of
usage. Delivering this level of insight
empowers your support agents to
forewarn customers about possible
issues and ask questions that can spur
additional purchases.

Empower Agents with

Asset Intelligence
Ideally, the support system will also
gather information from the customer's
network when a support interaction
occurs. Based on this view into the
customer's network topology, the
system can identify issues and provide
support agents with a complete picture
of what could be contributing to
technical issues. The system can also

advise the support agent on additional

revenue potential rather than simply
showing which products or services the
customer has already purchased. This
guidance spurs productivity, as agents
tend to focus more on calls with higher
cross-sell or up-sell opportunity since
additional sales boost their
performance scorecards.

Customer Support
through the Cloud Makes
this Vision a Reality
The advantages of cloud delivery are
significant in enabling this transformation of
customer service. It's no wonder that
according to Gartner analyst Michael Maoz,
By 2013, at least 75% of customer service
centers will use some form of SaaS
application as part of the contact center
solution. The reasons for this other than
the obvious one of lower TCO are
numerous.

Cloud-based customer
support makes it easier to
scale support operations as
volumes change. Plus,
because implementation is a
matter of connecting to a
service rather than deploying
hardware and software, it's
dramatically faster for a
quick ROI. Support in the
cloud also makes it possible
to take advantage of the
newest technologies that
contribute to a better
customer experience
through higher first contact
resolution and an increased
ability to quickly and
accurately suggest relevant
add-on products or services
to customers. In fact, the
Aberdeen Group states that
companies deploying
contact centers in the cloud
produce on average 9%
higher revenues.

Better Performing
Contact Centers are
more likely to be
Deployed on the Cloud
The advantages of
cloud delivery are
significant in enabling
this transformation of
customer service. It's
no wonder that
according to Gartner
analyst Michael Maoz,
By 2013, at least 75%
of customer service
centers will use some
form of SaaS
application as part of
the contact center
solution. The reasons
for this other than the
obvious one of lower
TCO are numerous.

Cloud-based customer support makes it easier to

scale support operations as volumes change. Plus,
because implementation is a matter of connecting to
a service rather than deploying hardware and
software, it's dramatically faster for a quick ROI.
Support in the cloud also makes it possible to take
advantage of the newest technologies that contribute
to a better customer experience through higher first
contact resolution and an increased ability to quickly
and accurately suggest relevant add-on products or
services to customers. In fact, the Aberdeen Group
states that companies deploying contact centers in
the cloud produce on average 9% higher revenues.
Average Performance of Cloud-Based vs Traditional Contact Centers

First Contact Resolution

Average Year-over-Year
Revenue Improvement

Cloud-Based

Traditional

51%

30%

13.1%

4%

- 3.2%

+ 1.2%

Average Year-over-Year Change

in Regulatory Non-compliance
Frequency
Source: The Hidden ROI of a Cloud-based Contact Center, Aberdeen Group, January 2013

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Generate New Revenues

in Three Ways
With this foundation and capabilities in place,
support organizations can quickly and easily
pinpoint issues such as a customer's hard drive
running out of space or antivirus expiring, leading
to expanded revenue opportunities. In fact, such
a solution empowers them to:

Offer more services.

Convert out-of-scope calls into sales.

Capitalize on insights into future product or

service requirements.

Expand
services
Advanced cloud-based support offerings allow
companies to mix and match the subscriptions they
offer their customers, for different service levels and
ultimate differentiation. The nature of a cloud-based
service means it's much easier to take advantage of,
reliably deliver and offer customers a range of
applications, whether support tools, security
mechanisms or identity protection solutions, to name
a few.

The
Internet of
Things

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Convert out-of-scope
calls into sales
By tapping into customer profiling and business
intelligence tools, organizations can determine
customer requirements for additional products
and services beyond their present portfolio of
offerings. With enough demand for certain
products or services, they can start delivering new
hardware, software and services such as
delivering onsite support to expand their current
portfolio and generate additional revenues.

Tap into the power of

analytics
Based on a deep understanding of customers'
usage of various products and services
including software and device configuration
organizations gain insights into future product
or services requirements. This empowers them
to anticipate the buying and support needs of
their existing customers and preempt customer
needs and cross-sell or up-sell related
products and services.

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Introducing
the Revolutionary
Digital Service Cloud
Digital Service Cloud from iYogi
delivers on the promise of this
convergence of technologies and
practices, transforming the
customer experience from the
very start. Embedded self-help
tools empower customers to
explore possible solutions to their
issues. At the same time, expert
assistance is just a click away.
End users can leverage an easy-to-use
interface from their desktop that makes
all support-related assistance available
as an application. Through this
engagement point, a customer can
simply push a button, request a call and
within minutes get called back. Through
pull-down menus on the dock,
customers can indicate their problem,
so the support rep can start a call or
chat session already understanding the
issue.
Tapping into the continually evolving
knowledge base empowers any

support rep even the newest ones

to quickly resolve issues. Tougher
issues can be easily funneled to more
expert support reps. Plus, the system
collects information about the end
user's system and environment and can
alert the support agent of issues such
as the customer's PC being sluggish.
This opens the door to a possible sale.
Moreover, Digital Service Cloud applies
predictive analytics to all the
interactions it captures to predict
situations such as if a customer buys X,
she is likely to buy Y as well.
By delivering a unique and satisfying
support experience enabled by a range
of technologies including asset
intelligence, organizations can avoid
support deflection while also
generating new sources of revenue.

@
@

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Conclusion: Deploying
IoT to Improve Customer
Service and Boost Profits
According to the article in Wired.com,
putting IoT to work may soon become
a competitive necessity. Referring to a
recent survey, it adds that 53 percent
of global enterprises are planning to
implement IoT solutions within the
next couple years.

@
@

Each support interaction offers

the opportunity for a company to
impact its relationship with
customers. While a positive
experience leads to satisfaction
and long-term customer loyalty, a
negative experience can lead to
defection and negative word of
mouth that impacts both current
and future revenues.
The bottom line is that contact
centers are uniquely positioned to
generate additional revenues due
to the information shared by
customers during these
interactions. By adopting a cloudbased technology platform that
embeds advanced technologies,
organizations can intelligently
route customers to the most
appropriate resource, quickly
resolve issues, and rapidly and
accurately identify potential
opportunities for additional
revenues.

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The possibilities to improve customer

service with IoT are immense, and it's
worth spending time to consider them
with clear thinking. At a minimum level,
new devices should always be Internet
connected. Second, companies need to
look at the information in hand in
specific, operational information - and
find ways it can be used to improve
customer service. More importantly, IoT

technology is not without its

complications, so it is smart to have
someone in IT to track developments,
particularly those related to new trends.
With a new wave of consumers
coming, they have raised hopes of realtime information. IoT technology is
likely to play an important role in
fulfilling those hopes.

By licensing Digital Service Cloud, combined with the power of IoT and leveraging
the latest support technologies, organizations can change the entire customer
experience and generate higher revenues. Start transforming customer support today
by signing up for a 10-minute demo showing the power of Digital Service Cloud.
Continue the Conversation on Our LinkedIn Group

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 Copyright iYogi 2013

iYogi Inc.
291 Broadway, Suite 803
New York NY 10007
United States
Nov 2013
All Rights Reserved
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