Three years from now, 5% of customer service cases will be autonomously initiated by connected devices as more objects connect to the internet.
A new report on mobile customer service, produced by analysts at Gartner, has predicted that as the amount of internet-connected devices grows to billions, the home of 2018 could have as many as 500 smart objects collaborating in a “personal internet of things (IoT)”.
Three years from now, 5% of customer service cases will be autonomously initiated by connected devices as more objects connect to the internet.
A new report on mobile customer service, produced by analysts at Gartner, has predicted that as the amount of internet-connected devices grows to billions, the home of 2018 could have as many as 500 smart objects collaborating in a “personal internet of things (IoT)”.
Customer service via video, helped by the increasing availability of bandwidth to support it, is also becoming more important, said Gartner, which estimated that at least 50 of the 500 largest businesses in the world would be using video extensively in their customer service practices by 2018.
Gartner also warned that failure to focus on strengthening mobile customer service practice would harm the ability of many businesses to engage with their customers.
"Marketing may fill the sales funnel, and the sales department can close a deal, yet it is the overall impression of the enterprise generated by the quality of customer service that differentiates one enterprise from another," said Michael Maoz, vice-president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.
"Translating this general and departmental customer engagement concept into operational components across the enterprise is transforming the definition of customer service from an isolated function into an enterprise objective delivered across all points where the customer 'touches' the business.”