“The Internet of Things creates expectations of a seamless and efficient experience, and brands need to deliver,” Patrice Samuels, senior analyst at Parks Associates, says. “Superior customer experience is especially important in the IoT because purchase intentions for smart home devices are higher among current device owners than non-owners. Seventy percent of smart home device owners plan to buy a smart home device in the next 12 months.”

Samuels notes that only about 33 percent of U.S consumers who encountered setup problems with a brand would purchase a similar product from the company again, according to the research firm’s findings.

“Product setup and interoperability issues have created ongoing technical support challenges, and the broad variety of IoT product categories entering the home increases these difficulties and raises the stakes for support providers,” she adds. “Advanced solutions that utilize data analytics can help to anticipate and proactively resolve problems, especially as consumers acquire new connected products with less support history than a traditional PC or router. Next-generation support technologies, such as virtual agents and augmented reality, will be key support tools to manage the increasing complexity of the connected home.”

Parks Associates reports that its research shows that support automation, built on data analytics from IoT products, has already proven effective in building consumer confidence. The number of U.S. broadband households reporting problems with home networking routers has declined from 28 percent in 2014 to 18 percent in 2016, the research firm says. It also reports that for consumers who recently utilized professional support, 68 percent were satisfied with the speed of resolution.

Information on downloading the white paper, “IoT Support Solutions for the Internet of Tomorrow” released by Parks Associations and sponsored by CSS Corp. is available here.