Understanding the needs of a next generation customer

With the rapid digitalisation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, customers are more digitally savvy than ever before and that means not only higher expectations from their service providers, but a broader understanding of the wider issues affecting the industry.

 

“The next generation customer is going to be much more aware of things going on in society – things like the energy crisis, resilience in critical infrastructure, and the interconnectivity between transport, energy, and water,” explained Cartwright. “That’s all underpinned by the telco network and the data behind that.”

 

For Cartwright, harnessing the upcoming IoT boom is going to be crucial here. The number of connected devices within homes are going to increase almost exponentially in the coming years, with some market reports predicting the smart home market to increase to around $140 billion by 2026. With so many new connected devices in the home, there will be a wealth of customer information from which to help finely tune and personalise customer services.

 

“There will be an explosion of IoT devices in the coming years,” said Cartwright, who described smart metres as ‘phase one’, saying they were laying ‘digital foundation’ for wider IoT adoption. “It’s what we can put on top of these IoT networks that will have the real benefits to society.”

 

But that is not to say that great customer service is going to rely only on great analytics, nor is it going to be reliant on customers being more technically competent than ever. Instead, it is about creating a more personalised experience, using all of the available data and technologies available. In this way all customers, regardless of their technical know-how, can receive the best level of customer care.

 

“Great customer service comes with setting customer expectations. All these new devices and services will need a more sophisticated customer service,” said Cartwright. “There needs to be a customer service where people can just use these things, without needing to be technically savvy to make the most of these services. It’s not just calling somebody up on the phone – there needs to be a plethora of options for the next generation customer, whether its augmented reality or an omnichannel service.”