In an earlier blog post, 6 Insights on The Future of Customer Service we explored how digital technologies can change the way customer service is delivered in the future. In this blog post, we will explore how the innovative American automotive and energy storage company Tesla delivers customer service via The Internet of Things.
Tesla Model S. Image from www.teslamotors.com.
In January of 2014, Tesla discovered that the wall chargers for 29,222 cars were at risk of being overheated. Many people predicted that they were going to be forced to recall those vehicles and repair the charging receptacles, but Tesla was able to eliminate the problem in all of the cars by delivering one software update and sending them new charging equipment. This saved the drivers a troublesome journey to the dealership and gave the customers complete control over when they wanted to start the update and which by the way only took 45 minutes. The problem was fixed in the same way as a smartphone receive software upgrades.
This was not the first time Tesla has used updates to elevate the performance of its cars. According to Wired, they have also changed the suspension with an over-the-air update to give the car more clearance at high speeds. However, that fix was not covered much in media because there was no official recall notice by NTHSA.
"In the future, people won't buy devices just for their physical attributes; they'll buy them because of the apps and services that connectivity enables."
From this case we can learn that the Internet of Things has the potential to remove friction in the product life cycle and also amplify the user experience. Kevin Meagher, vice-president of Smart Homes at Lowes once said that "In the future, people won't buy devices just for their physical attributes; they'll buy them because of the apps and services that connectivity enables." We at Thinque couldn't agree more with Meagher on this point. Another example of the increasing importance of apps and services is Nike which in recent years has created an ecosystem of products and services that truly help people become better athletes. Check out the full story here: Nike's New Strategy: Move Into The Transformation Economy.
As we have mentioned in this previous blog post, Internet of Things and The New Consumer Behaviour Paradigm the Internet of Things will reshape the relationship between brands and customers. Additionally, customer service will become both reactive and proactive thanks to devices' connectivity with their capacity to monitor and enhance product performance.