Personalization is the key to service excellence. The more effective and better it is adapted to the consumer’s needs and desires, the greater the impact on the target audience. We have already mentioned in other articles that data today is the companies’ treasure. They help us know how we can create personalized experiences and generate high-impact solutions for people and organizations.
IoB is one of the technological trends that marks a new era in the way we organize and analyze data. This trend ensures that companies continue to grow into a future, which will continue to change and will allow them to adapt to a new economic paradigm.
We start with: What is the Internet of Behavior, IoB?
IoB (Internet of Behaviors) is an extension of IoT (Internet of Things). IoT works with data, information, and connectivity of different devices with each other. IoB works with these same parameters, adding user behaviors, to understand patterns and impressions that determine the user experience.
IoB links technology and a person’s actions to interpret the interaction. It also has the power to generate patterns to influence people’s behavior.
As a simple example, there is Uber and its IoT application. They use it to track drivers and passengers. At the end of each journey, a survey is conducted to evaluate the passenger experience. Applying IoB instead of IoT, they can go further, collecting the data without having to evaluate the experience through the survey. It is possible to track the driver’s behavior and then interpret the passenger experience, to automatically work on the feedback.
Behavioral Internet can be a powerful tool for Marketing and Sales. Companies are using data and information to track customer behavior. To create influential strategies towards products or services purchasing. With IoB help, companies have real-time behavior data to make consumer offering improvements.
By 2023, 40% of the world’s population individual activity will be digitally tracked to influence their behavior (Gartner 2020). This implies acting on almost 3 billion people. This means an unprecedented challenge, where we evolve from the mere adoption of technology to the total immersion of the human being into the digital world.
IoT and IoB. The dynamic duo.
As already mentioned, the relationship between IoT and IoB means evolution in how and what kind of data can be obtained from interactions with digital objects and devices.
We know that some of the data collected by companies come from the information the consumer provides by interacting with an application linked to the company. Another way, much more subtle, comes from the information collected from the interactions with smart devices, such as mobile phones. This has the power to easily track the user’s movements and their geolocation in real-time, for example. We can also link our smart devices such as computer, car, home cameras, voice assistants at home, etc., these links produce data that is collected from everyone, how we buy, spend, what we like and what we do not.
Organizations are improving not only the amount of data they collect but also the way they combine and use data from different sources. IoB will continue to influence the way organizations interact with people, collecting, combining, and processing data from a variety of sources, such as:
- Customer data
- Government agencies citizen data
- Social media
- Public domain facial recognition
- Location tracking
- Interactions with smart objects
IoB takes the data accumulation to the next level turning it into people and social knowledge. It has the power to link people to their actions, with a mix of behavioral science, data analytics, and technology. Taking care of analyzing decisions, emotions, human bonds, all the aspects that make who we are as individuals at a behavioural level.
IoB benefits
All of this helps companies tailor their products and services to the consumer, but that is not all, the data collected can also be used to:
- Solve problems to close sales and keep customers satisfied.
- Replace multiple customer surveys.
- Analyze customers’ buying habits on all platforms.
- Study unattainable data on how customers and users interact with services, products, and devices.
- Get a better understanding of where the customer is shopping.
- Provide real-time notifications about outlets and destination announcements.
- Analyze customers buying habits on all platforms.
- Obtain more detailed information about the customer during the purchasing process.
- Provide notifications and guidance in real-time.
- Test commercial and non-profit campaign effectiveness.
- Governments can customize support programs and new laws-related content.
- In the medical field, health care providers can assess patient’s condition, their commitment to treatments or obtain more data on their lifestyle.
These are some examples to visualize that the power of the Behavioural Internet, always hand in hand with the IoT, is enormous.
Companies have been analyzing, testing, and using other methods for years to develop strategies for creating and promoting products that users want to buy. Behavioral data will be a fundamental part of strategic planning, especially in the areas of development, marketing, and sales.
While the Behavioural Internet has its pros and cons, like any other technology, it has great power to simplify consumers’ lives, improve businesses, and help governments improve their citizens’ services.
Striking a balance between personalized offers and intrusion will be essential to avoid adverse consumer reactions. Any company that takes an IoB approach to its strategies needs to make sure it has strong cybersecurity in place to protect all that sensitive data. It is a revolution that in the hands and with the right data protection laws, will play an important role soon.
