According to Parks Associates, smart home devices will prompt more than 7 million support requests this year, with adoption at 16% of U.S. broadband households and nearly 40% planning to buy a smart home product in the next 12 months. By 2019, the number of support requests is expected to reach nearly 11 million.
"Rising adoption of smart home devices is prompting a parallel increase in support requests," wrote Patrice Samuels, research analyst at Parks. "Connected devices are tackling many new use cases, including home security, healthcare, and controls alongside entertainment, creating a new role in the Internet of Things for companies that can ensure seamless connectivity while preserving security. Nearly 60% of U.S. broadband households have privacy concerns about using connected devices. The smart home won't succeed without consumer confidence, and support services go a long way to providing that confidence."
Parks says 39% of smart home device owners experience problems with their smart home devices, and 10% experience more than one problem per device. Samuels recommends support providers invest in new tools including data analytics and knowledge management solutions to help identify and address the top issues for emerging devices.
"Providers with the proper solutions in place can identify top call drivers as well as common conflicts between new devices and then develop strategies that proactively address these issues before they negatively impact the customer experience," Samuels wrote. "Even though 60% of consumers now install traditional connected devices on their own, the potential for conflict and interoperability challenges increases as more devices enter the connected home. The support relationship that providers must have with their customers is changing dramatically."