Q: Martin, what are “digital customers” to you, and how are they changing the way businesses deliver customer experiences?
A: Digital customers, often known as machine customers, are Internet of Things (IoT) devices. These devices act on behalf of consumers to provide key insights without the need for human intervention. We estimate that by 2030, over 40 billion connected IoT products will have the potential to behave as digital customers, from smart fridges and medical devices to cars and smart meters.
These devices are not only end-users but also intermediaries for human customers, requiring organisations to rethink how they deliver seamless service.
Integrating IoT-driven solutions into Customer Experience (CX) isn’t a foreign concept. People already act on machine insights, such as scheduling a car service based on a vehicle alert. In CX, the same principle applies: millions of smart meters, appliances, movement sensors and other IoT devices act as enablers for contactless resolution and proactive service delivery. By adding a predictive element to all this data to address issues before they become customer pain points, businesses and other organisations can significantly enhance satisfaction and loyalty.
Q: Can you explain how IoT facilitates the shift to “contactless resolution”?
A: Proactive customer service is quickly becoming a priority for many organisations. According to Forrester, 71% of customers say they want proactive engagement from the businesses that serve them, and 72% report high satisfaction levels when they receive it.
The Holy Grail of CX has long been to sort out customer issues within a single interaction, called ‘first contact resolution’. However, with the continued growth of connected devices, it is possible to go one step further. When service issues occur, for instance, proactively reaching out to customers can pre-empt the surge in contacts traditionally associated with such situations. We can get ahead of the curve, and help contact centres seamlessly anticipate spikes in demand.
Building on this approach, Agentic AI, a type of AI that can make autonomous decisions and take actions based on multiple sources of data and knowledge, is helping to boost organisations’ ability to integrate and act on data across diverse sources. Known as omni-data, this process will require a considerable amount of processing power, however Agentic AI will execute its tasks super-efficiently with minimal need for human oversight.
Q: How significant is the growth of IoT in shaping the future of CX, and which industries are leading the change?
A: Each new IoT device represents a potential “digital customer”. For organisations, this means customer interactions are no longer limited to just a few billion potential human touchpoints. Instead, companies must cater to a much larger network of machine-driven interactions. This shift requires rethinking traditional service models, investing in intelligent automation and artificial intelligence (AI), and building ecosystems that support machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.
Utilities, manufacturing, healthcare and motor industries are at the forefront of IoT-enabled customer interactions. For example, IoT technology allows healthcare providers to improve access to care through various ‘virtual’ experiences, including ‘hospital at home’ virtual wards which allow discharged patients to be monitored at home using internet-enabled medical IoT devices. Patient data is shared with teams of clinicians, dedicated to tracking the progress of virtual patients and supporting them accordingly.
The automotive sector is also a trailblazer, with connected cars alerting manufacturers about maintenance needs or even autonomously scheduling service appointments. Soon these vehicles, and the service hubs who coordinate them, will be automatically scanning potential suppliers of any parts they need and negotiating the best deals. These industries are showcasing the immense potential of IoT to revolutionise CX and redefine the concept of customer service.
For the public sector, local governments have begun transitioning to become “centralised command hubs” to help monitor high-spend areas such as social care, waste management, and highway maintenance while working with increasingly stringent budgets. IoT devices allow them to monitor all aspects of their centralised data and then act on the information in real time.
Q: What’s the long-term impact of IoT on customer relationships?
A: IoT is fundamentally reshaping customer relationships by shifting the focus from reactive problem-solving to proactive value delivery. Businesses that integrate IoT into their CX strategies can anticipate and address customer needs before they become pain points, creating a frictionless experience.
The long-term transformational potential of IoT lies in its ability to humanise technology, making interactions and transactions effortless for both human and digital customers. Organisations that embrace this shift and invest in connected ecosystems will drive customer loyalty and create new types of partnerships built on trust, transparency and proactive support.
IoT devices in the CX industry are nothing new, and businesses in some sectors have been using IoT-powered insights to improve their customer service for several years now. The next step is for other industries to replicate and build on their success in novel applications, utilising IoT and Agentic AI together to deliver contactless resolution and improve customer experiences as well as workforce productivity.
Contact centres will be transformed into dynamic data hubs that allow organisations to act on incoming information and deliver personalised, proactive communications. Organisations will interact with and manage their digital customers in a vastly different way from traditional human customers. Still, the core aim remains the same – to make interactions at once personalised, straightforward and impactful.
- Fintech & Insurtech
