But what precisely is the “Internet of things” and is it going to impact you?
Let’s start with understanding a few basics. Broadband is become more widely available everywhere. The cost of connecting to broadband is decreasing. More devices are being created to broadband and have Wi-Fi and sensors built into them. Technology costs are going down on most everything. Smartphone penetration is sky-rocketing. All of these ingredients are creating a “perfect storm” for the IoT.
Basically, the IoT is the concept of connecting any device with an on and off switch to broadband and maybe to each other. This includes everything from mobile phones, coffee makers, refrigerators, door bells, lamps, thermostats and almost anything else you can think of. This also applies to inner workings of machines, for example an engine in a car or the drill bit of an oil rig. Remember, if it has an on and off switch then chances are it can be a part of the IoT.
It was recently estimated that nearly 15 billion IoT-connected devices will be sold this year and by 2020 there will be over 26 billion connected devices… That’s a lot of connections (some even estimate this number to be much higher, over 100 billion). The IoT is a giant network of connected “things” (which also includes people). The Human/Machine relationship will be: H2H, M2H, and M2M.
Contact centers used to be commonly used to referred to as “call centers” that handled well, calls, from, well, human beings and calls were distributed using ACD to available agents. Now Call Centers are fast changing into Contact Centers as many advances allowed them to handle multiple new “Channel” sessions such as Chat, SMS and Social Media messaging. But also the IOT is providing new digital information, so IoT is M2H channel. Now and more and more IoT messages will to come agents with live updates from many different IoT sources. Humans in contact centers will have to handle the IoT data and process, analyze, classify and then assign it into the correct action bucket.
Here are some M2H examples of call centers getting new information from IoT channels and agents will analyze and sort for follow-up for better customer service:
- A moisture detection IoT senses a leak in a boiler, the alert triggered a call center to dispatch a plumber to the leak in the mission critical area.
- A"smart" refrigerator that figures out the condenser coil is failing and sends a message to the manufacturer's contact center. Allowing the agent to proactively call the owner to prevent the pending refrigerator's disaster
- ThyssenKrupp Elevator wanted to go beyond the industry standard of preventative maintenance, to offer predictive and even preemptive maintenance, for guarantee a higher uptime percentage.
- IoT-enabled solutions such as the Ava bracelet, help women improve their chances of getting pregnant. A contact center may call before “the time” as an additional reminder.
- A city has all its parking meters with IoT, pay a fine via an app or a contact center.
- A thermostat on the Good Cents Program locks the home owner from adjusting their temperature higher or lower that the agreed amount. In return the homeowner gets reduced energy cost per KW on their electric bills. They can call a call center a few times a month for an override.
- There are many automotive examples; Progressive Snapshot gathers info on driver habits. When the customer calls the call center, they might receive a safe driver credit or maybe the call center will have to cancel her insurance (I’m joking or maybe not).
Please contact us for any call center technology need or telecom challenge.
Thank you,
James Wilson, CEO
Call Center Pros
+1-404 936 4000
james@call-center-pros.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jameswwilson
#IOT_GA #IOTGA
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