Technology
Anna Gorina
29 January 2024
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Technology plays more and more of a prominent role in our lives. Smart homes powered by computers were once an idea from science fiction but are now becoming affordable to the average consumer. Though each new generation of technology becomes easier to use, smart home users can still encounter technical difficulties. So, where do consumers turn when their smart house doesn’t function as expected?
Smart Home owners facing technical difficulties have an increasing amount of choices available. Best Buy and other retailers offer their own technical support for smart homes. Device makers such as Amazon now have dedicated support services for devices connected to their specific smart home ecosystem. Smart home support is a service offered to provide insurance and technical support for all electronics in your household. Users can subscribe to the service for a monthly fee online or by visiting telecommunications stores like a Verizon Wireless location. While these different services differ in their coverage, they are all centered around a smart home. So what is a smart home exactly?
A smart home is a house with several connected devices that connect over wifi or 5G wireless to the Internet of Things (IoT) to automate their functions. For example, a smart thermostat automates the temperature according to usage patterns to reduce a home’s heating or cooling bill. There are different IoT ecosystems like Apple HomeKit, Google Nest, or Amazon Alexa that help manage the devices.
There are an increasing variety of smart home products available to increase convenience in daily life. Using a smart device like a Google Home or Amazon Alexa smart speaker can manage connected devices in your home through voice commands. The surprising capabilities of these devices make it feel like we’re living in the future! These original products can control your home theater, turn on the lights, or read recipes aloud while cooking. You can even use these intelligent assistants to power a robot vacuum to clean the house. In short, a smart home is a home where electronics and appliances are all managed by a virtual assistant.
As with any new technology, users may encounter technical difficulties with their new devices. Each new device adds to the cost of equipping a smart home properly. The advantage of smart home support is that it offers both tech support and insures devices against destruction. By combining these two support services, the customer get two advantages for the cost of one. These advantages are an excellent fit for some but may not be worth it for others.
Smart home support is like any other support; the customer experience should come first. Efficient customer service leaves customers satisfied and helps to reduce your center’s call volume. Ensuring agents have easy access to the latest information saves time for both the customer and your call center. Employees need to be properly trained in techniques like customer service recovery. Implementing omnichannel support like ViiBE empowers your agents to communicate empathy to the customer. This holistic approach centered on customer experience is key to good smart home support.
Smart homes are supposed to make life more convenient, but sometimes they can make it more challenging. A technical failure in smart devices that control a home’s lights or locks can make a house unlivable. Our society’s increased reliance on technology and IoT devices means increased vulnerability to hackers who seek to exploit a smart home’s weaknesses. Tech support is crucial in these moments to ensure a smart home systems’ security and troubleshoot issues that debilitate the functioning of our daily life. For customers encountering these issues, readily available customer support is a necessity. Whether your company is big or small, supporting your customers with smart homes has never been simpler.
While smart home support is a standalone product, companies with smart home products can integrate a wider support approach into their customer service. Retail staff or support agents can use co-browsing to help guide customers through understanding the different options of new smart home devices available.
Then, in after-sales support services, companies can use omnichannel support like ViiBE’s video chat to connect easily to their customers on any device. Customers can see the support agent’s face and easily show their problem on camera. ViiBE is installation-free and platform-agnostic. The customers can demonstrate on camera the issue they are experiencing with the product or service. ViiBE makes it easy for the agent to walk the customer through a repair or explain a functionality by drawing on their screen.
ViiBE makes customer service as simple as the latest smart home technology. Its expertise call routing puts your customers in touch with the most qualified expert at the beginning of the call, saving valuable time for everyone involved. ViiBE’s knowledge management and ticketing solutions make it easy to track reoccurring issues and to draw examples from past customer interactions for training purposes.
The new release of ViiBE includes features like scheduling calls, increasing convenience for you and your customer. Finally, customers fill out a simple follow-up survey at the end of each ViiBE call to rate their interaction and specify whether their issue was resolved. This data is automatically updated in your key performance indicators to help keep track of customer support agent performance and the overall performance of your call center.
Smart home technology is rapidly becoming more widespread. As this technology integrates into our daily lives, technical issues will become more prevalent. Customers adopting smart home technology rely on their devices to efficiently and conveniently automate their household functions. When these systems are compromised or stop working correctly, customers expect technical support to fix the problem rapidly. Customer service is key for any business, and the intelligent approach to customer service means increased convenience and connectivity. ViiBE’s customer service tools integrate into existing call centers or can be used as a standalone virtual call center. This approach makes it simple for you to provide your customer with a convenient customer experience while saving you time and money.
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