IoT, or the Internet of Things, has grown in popularity with the goal of connecting the unconnected. As with any new technological advancement, there has been an amount of hesitancy in welcoming IoT into more mainstream processes. Sectors such as manufacturing and transportation have been early adopters and champions in investing in IoT technologies. According to Allied Market Research, the market size for IoT in manufacturing was valued at 424 billion in 2016 with expectations for that to grow to 994 billion by 2023. Similar massive growth is expected for the transport sector with the market size valued at just over 135 billion in 2016, with anticipated growth to reach almost 329 billion by 2023.
When looking at the value-added by IoT to these sectors, and the continuous reinvestment in the technology, why are some industries slow to move? Why haven’t sectors such as retail, hospitality, and healthcare benefitted from a reduction in manual reporting and time-released to serve?
The internet of things brings massive opportunities to engage consumers and deliver a great customer experience. Customers can be the biggest advocates for change, if they have an incredible experience they will talk. Equally, if they have a negative experience, they will talk. Delivering the best customer experience should be top of the list when trying to build trust. This is where it is key for IoT solutions to be seamless to integrate and installation to be as seamless as possible. We don’t need customers frustrated because they cannot get their new device set up, or there is a massive impact on trade .
To us the reason is twofold. There is a lack of understanding around IoT, industry gatekeeping and a lack of clear definitions has resulted in an unwillingness to invest. There are also legitimate security concerns, what is there to protect data from being targeted and stolen? These two roadblocks essentially boil down to a lack of trust, so how do we build that trust and encourage more industries to adopt IoT solutions?
Customer Experience
The internet of things brings massive opportunities to engage consumers and deliver a great customer experience. Customers can be the biggest advocates for change, if they have an incredible experience they will talk. Equally, if they have a negative experience, they will talk. Delivering the best customer experience should be top of the list when trying to build trust. This is where it is key for IoT solutions to be seamless to integrate and installation to be as seamless as possible. We don’t need customers frustrated because they cannot get their new device set up, or there is a massive impact on trade.
Mobile UX Design
The primary method of interaction with an IoT product is generally via a web or mobile interface on a smartphone or tablet. Being the primary interaction interface, the mobile experience often defines the overall IoT product experience and is essential for building both affective and cognitive trust.
Many IoT products fail immediately after the user’s initial period of excitement. This failure is often attributed to the user interface being too complicated, time-consuming to use, or the product being untrustworthy. Users have a very low tolerance for managing IoT products and expect them to “just work.” For this reason, minor technical issues or interface imperfections result in the discontinued use of IoT products, ultimately damaging user and public trust. For a user, spending even a couple of minutes fixing an issue may be too high friction for the user to overcome. Mobile UX and its lasting effect on product trust cannot be overstated.
Security
According to an IEEE survey, security is the top concern for companies looking to adopt IoT technology. Addressing security in the IoT realm requires a multifaceted approach and one that often requires human support. If information is hacked or leaked, it’s important companies are reassured manufacturers are doing everything they can to keep their information safe.
The standardization and certification of secure technology implementations may be enough to build confidence, but not enough to instil trust. Trust in IoT can only be gained by reducing security breaks. And the best method for identifying these breaks is to use an IoT audit point to analyse end-to-end network traffic flows, from client to trusted service.
Legislation
Laws are emerging to strengthen IoT security. IoT devices and ecosystems are already subject to significant data privacy and product liability regulation in many jurisdictions. Some of these have teeth, threatening fines, personal liability, and even imprisonment for those responsible for security breaches, as well as the possibility of cease-and-desist orders, erasure of data, and product recall.
The U.K. announced in April 2021 that it will legislate for IoT security. Under the planned legislation, customers must be informed at the point of sale exactly how long a smart device will receive software updates. Manufacturers will be banned from shipping products with default passwords and will have to provide a public point of contact to make it easy to report a vulnerability. An enforcement body will investigate allegations of non-compliance.
Actionable Data
A lack of knowledge by untrained users can be challenging when operating sophisticated IoT sensors. Training on how best to utilize this rich data is the most beneficial offering a customer support team can provide.
Providing data to customers in an easily actionable format can do a lot towards bridging that trust gap. Feeding information direct to the customer in an app, dashboard, or report format is a good start, but they need to know what to do with the information in their hands. Detailed push notifications can build a customer’s confidence in connected devices by not only giving them data but giving them knowledge.
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