Something that I have been digging into for a while that I think is really fascinating is the whole world of machine to machine interactions. It seems like every company is looking at their business, their products or their services and striving to find a way to connect them to the rest of the world.
You have Cisco who is pushing the Internet of Everything, Salesforce that is talking about the Internet of Customers and hundreds of other companies from Tesla to Samsung to Nest that are connecting products to each other.
So, there are number of great reasons why this makes sense to do over the coming years. Some companies talk about the data they can collect in real time. Some talk about over the air software updates etc... But I believe the single most important application for this machine to machine technology is in predictively finding opportunities for driving to a better customer experience. Products and services are becoming more commoditized even faster than ever and as most of the rest of the world is finally waking up to, customer experience is becoming king. Whether that be marketing the right service or product to me at the right time, or selling me the right thing or servicing me before I even know I need it, all of these are great simplistic examples of using machines to connect us more effectively to our customers.
Tesla is probably the best example of this right now in the market. I am unsure if they are going to be able to really scale the model, but their current service model is game changing. If you don't already know, Tesla is a new car manufactruer that products all electric cars that are sleek, fast and obviously environmentally friendly. But what most people don't know, is that they are hyper connected cars. Every little detail is being captured in the central "brain" of the car and being transmitted back to Tesla HQ for analysis. Even to the point of knowing when the front hood of the car was opened.
But what is seperating them from the pack right now more than the big things just mentioned, is their service model. They can tell, based on the data they are collecting, that you are about to have an issue with your car. They then throw a red flag to a piece of software that captures the issue, sends the issue automatically to a CRM system, creates a service order, they then call the customer to let them know the issue and schedule a time when they will come to the customers house to fix the problem. Yes, come to YOUR house, not the other way around.
Obviously, there are some really great parts of this model, but the best part for me as a car owner is the idea that they are watching and paying attention to what may happen, so that I don't have a bigger issue down the line. Sure, they could abuse this model and try to fix every little thing and nickel and dime you to death with little charges for fixing things. But this is not their model. And I would love to have a company doing this for me today in a number of areas in my life. What if your mobile phone provider actually called you when they noticed that the battery life was getting low on your phone. And maybe even offered you a new battery for a discount.
This is the creativity and innovative type of thinking that can happen when machines start talking to machines. But lets be clear, it is not the machines talking to machines that are the key. It is the monitoring of the data and the automated processes in the background that kick off actions that are the key to what the customer experiences.
What is an example of a machine to machine story that changed your experience with a company?
1 comment:
I don't necessarily have an example of machine to machine communication that worked, but rather, machine to machine communication that didn't work.
My wife and I own a 2010 Ford Flex. We absolutely love the car. It's got plenty of room for us, our two kids, the dog and everything we need to take with us on trips. It's loaded with technology, a back up camera, navigation, heated seats for the winter, it looks sharp and goes fast.
The other day, a warning message came up on the navigation system. "Would you like to run and send a vehicle diagnostic report?" I assume this is similar to the Tesla model. My assumption was: 1) Run the report 2) It goes to Ford 3) Ford analyzes the data 4) Sends the information to a local dealer in my area (somehow understanding where the report came from) 5) Dealer calls me to go over the report 6) I schedule service with the dealer 7) Dealer makes money off me and I continue to be happy with my car.
Instead, I pushed "Yes" on the prompt, some computer crunching occurred, then a failure message came up. "Unable to send report". No error code, no reason... just "unable".
So... Conceptually, the concept was brilliant. However, when execution came into play, it fell flat.
Potential take away: MAKE SURE your innovative and state-of-the-art customer service experience is READY or you'll risk alienating a loyal customer who will likely lose faith in your ability to execute.
Post a Comment