Paul Weichselbaum, Executive Vice President at PlumChoice, answers questions about smart home adoption and what the future holds for the connected device market:

What is the most important next step to engage consumers in smart home solutions, connected entertainment services, and/or value-added services like tech support and connected health?

The most critical next step in engaging connected consumers is ensuring frictionless onboarding and activation. “Thing makers” are focused on innovating their “things”—not on helping users adopt their products—and definitely not on integrating those products with other brands in the home or small business. In fact, the thing makers’ service paradigm is ill-suited to address the new realities of this market, which is characterized by highly personalized, increasingly complex technical environments with compounding service and support needs. This is the thing makers’ dilemma. Without an antidote, this dilemma results in burgeoning no-fault-found returns and slow market penetration. Connected devices and solutions are useless without the convenience, control and simplicity they promise, so as an industry, we need to make it easy for users to adopt, integrate, effectively use and habituate them.

What is the biggest driver for the connected consumer market?

Consumers want the convenience, control and peace of mind that these devices promise. When the devices fail to deliver on those needs because the user is not supported in his or her adoption, use or integration of the product, brands experience churn and no-fault-found returns (NFFR). Thus, the consumer does not receive the value and simplicity they desired. For those reasons, specialized technical services must become part and parcel of the product, encompassing the device or solution in a way that facilitates frictionless selection, purchase, installation and onboarding, and ongoing use as well as issue resolution.

Describe your vision for the smart home and entertainment markets in 2020.

The smart home and entertainment markets will continue to be characterized by rapid change and growth in the coming years. As new devices and solutions continue to penetrate the consumer and small business markets, the need for thoughtful, creative, purpose-built specialized services will expand and intensify. Brands that are proactive and accompany their IoT innovations with all-encompassing, whole-home support and services will be the ones standing tall in five years. Breaking through the noise in the smart home and entertainment market and placing a force-field of care around the consumer will not only help differentiate a brand from its competitors, but will also help in recognizing long-term revenue through increased adoption rates, expanded usage and improved customer loyalty.

Paul Weichselbaum will be speaking on the panel “Consumer Support in the Internet of Things” during CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES in Las Vegas, NV, January 6, 2015. He will be joined by other company representatives from CSS Corp, iYogi, Support.com, and Sutherland Global Services.

For more information on CONNECTIONS™ Summit speakers, sessions, or topics, visit http://www.parksassociates.com/events/connections-summit. Registration is still open!