The Internet of Things or IoT is a term often thrown around in technology corridors these days and for good reason. IoT is a system of interrelated computing devices i.e. digital machines, mobiles, tablets, and objects with the ability to transfer data over a defined network. Now you’d probably ask isn’t all this already happening, and for years? So what’s new? Well, with IoT there’s absolutely no need for human-to-human or human-to-computer interactions, everything works on its own, connected but independant at the same time. Put Salesforce in the equation and you have a CRM in the age of IoT bringing all your data in one place. Sounds really cool, doesn’t it? Well, we’ve barely scratched the surface. With IoT in place and in effect, customer needs can be met before customers even realize the needs themselves.
Read on to find out 5 amazing things you can do with Salesforce IoT Cloud!
Connected Customer Profiles
In Salesforce IoT Cloud, you can create complete customer profiles that are connected to the product and the customer as well. Works out something like this:
These connected customer profiles are linked to all the devices in the customer’s possession and all the data coming in from these devices. The opportunities are endless. Let’s say you own a windmill with each turbine connected to the Salesforce IoT Cloud. All you have to do is open up the CRM on your desktop or mobile and get a holistic view of your windmill performance right down to every single turbine. You can look at energy consumption, energy generation, and even performance metrics. But things get a little more interesting than this; with IoT, your windmill can automatically adjust the rotatory speeds and turbine performances based on weather predictions and conditions fetched from the Internet. Remember how I told you everything’s connected? Any equipment failure is also channeled to the concerned department automatically, in case of turbine failure, Salesforce IoT Cloud will automatically link to the Customer Service Department to lodge a complaint and send you a red flag so you can schedule a maintenance at your convenience. The Maintenance team will get a work order on the map with route options and status of the equipment in question. Since the IoT Cloud is connected to all other Salesforce Cloud platforms, it analyzes and directs the issue to the relevant platform on its own. How cool is that?
Customer Context
Customer Context is the machine learning aspect of the Salesforce IoT Cloud that stores and analyses past behaviors and actions when making decisions in real time. The Customer Context takes into account Customer Location, Customer History and Service History and combines it with IoT device data to give you a complete picture of what’s happening.
Spot Opportunities: Lead Generation/Customer Acquisition
The Salesforce IoT Cloud reaches well beyond simple B2B processes. With each product connected to the Cloud, the Sales team can single out which item is outdated, which is nearing a warranty deadline, which just had a massive new update, and which is performing below standard. This information can be leveraged in multiple ways to improve the Sales processes. You can perfectly target customers who need your product. You can create custom offers and send them to customers before a warranty deadline or pitch a new product when their existing product is not working optimally. You can also set the Salesforce IoT Cloud to take these actions on its own by defining a set of rules. Set a rule based on performance metrics and whenever a product performs below the standard, an automatic entry is made to the Sales and Customer Support teams to look into. All this data can be leveraged in a number of ways to analyze and predict customer behavior and customer needs. The IoT Cloud greatly improve customer acquisition and retention through a completely automated process.
No Code Technology — IoT Actions
The Salesforce IoT Cloud applies a low code approach that allows business executives to carry out their IoT processes without needing a trip to the IT department. The rules that we mentioned above are called orchestration rules that can be set up in a manner very similar to a customer journey. Put triggers and responses and watch as IoT takes care of the bulk of processes for you. The IoT actions send your IoT device data to any of the Salesforce core platforms i.e. Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud etc and automatically creates an action item i.e. Automatically create a Lead form for a customer whose product is about to fail. The low code approach reduces costs in a number of places and helps you test business ideas readily without needing to code.
Benefits of the Salesforce IoT Cloud for Customers
- A personal, deeper relationship with the help of a proactive approach to customer needs and issues. Reshape how businesses conduct business. Improve customer interaction and customer retention.
- Fully exportable data, with Salesforce IoT Cloud, you can export your IoT device data in any format of your choice.
- Test business ideas without needing to code, test new ideas and unleash your creativity in the world of IoT.
- Daily events are processed with Salesforce Einstein to give you the right information where you need it!
Our Two Bits!
The future of businesses will depend on their expertise in realizing customer needs before the customer and their proactive approach to solving customer issues and providing support. The Salesforce IoT Cloud is an excellent and a huge step in the right direction for your business and its future. Hop on the bandwagon before you’re forced to run after it. The future is here and IoT is at the center of it!
Rolustech is Certified Salesforce Partner and Consultant. We have helped numerous firms with Salesforce integrations and customization. You can contact us to learn more about the Salesforce Platform and how it can help your business.
Originally published at www.rolustech.com on November 22, 2018.
