Wearables are perfect for the enterprise
Wearable technology is all the rage these days. From Fitbit to Samsung Gear to Google Glass to rumored impending launches from Apple and Microsoft, wearable devices are top-of-mind for everyone excited about new technology.
However, the tech industry and its consumers appear to be more excited about wearable tech as a theory than in practice.
More than half of the consumers who purchased a wearable device in the US have stopped using it, according to Endeavor Partners, a mobile strategy consulting firm.
Enterprise adoption
Businesses, on the other hand, have been finding ways to incorporate wearables into their daily practices. Because the technology has become so effective at assisting and tracking human actions, enterprises are now finding interesting ways to leverage wearables to streamline processes and hold employees accountable.
From improving customer care, to ensuring productivity and safety, wearables have been a natural step in the evolution of enterprise technology. Several companies have already started using wearable technology in an innovative and forward-thinking way to advance their businesses and achieve their goals through improved operations.
Health and wellness
One way companies making use of wearable tech is by providing their employees with tracking devices in order to monitor their fitness. This practice gives managers insight into the overall health of the company Across the United States, many SMBs, enterprises, educational institutions and other organizations are beginning to weave high-tech gadgetry into their employee wellness programs.
British Petroleum (BP), the multinational gas and oil company, has partnered with StayWell Health Management to offer employees the use of Fitbit to measure data such as the number of steps walked, quality of sleep and other personal health metrics.
Through this partnership, employees are able to participate in the One Million-Steps challenge, which encourages people to incorporate physical activity into their daily routine. The success of the program is gauged through gained "wellness points." Employees have reportedly started parking further from the entrance way, taking the longer trip to the bathroom and conference rooms, or taking the stairs to the office in order to accrue more points.
This program benefits BP because a healthier workforce means a break in health care premiums. Dozens of other organizations provide their employees with Fitbits for similar programs, including social media management platform Buffer and software company Autodesk. While employees and employers alike tend to find the use of wearable tech for corporate wellness programs to be valuable, there is the concern of privacy and difficulty quantifying return on investment.
Safety
Progressive is one of the largest providers of car insurance in the United States - you've probably heard of Flo, right? In an attempt to help reward good drivers, the company started the Progressive Snapshot discount program. The insurance company sends drivers the Snapshot device that plugs into the car and gathers details on how they drive, including time of day and distance travelled. If approved by the insurance company, drivers can see up to a 30% discount on their rates.
Wearables improve service, sales and goal scoring
Customer service
We all know how stressful and tedious the check-in process at the airport can be. To help ameliorate this process, Virgin Atlantic passengers became the first air travellers to experience the benefits of Google Glass in their travels during a six-week trial starting in February. During the trial, a Virgin rep wearing Google Glass greeted VIP customers, confirmed travel itinerary, provided information about local weather at the destination-point, and provided other small luxuries to improve the pre-boarding experience.
In the future, Virgin is hoping to incorporate information about their passengers' dietary and refreshment preferences. The goal here is to provide the most efficient and personalized service for their clients.
Increased sales
Not only can wearables be used to help encourage employees to be more cognizant of their physical well-being and for enhanced customer service, they can also be used to track employee performance. The Container Store is using Theatro's 1.5 oz. voice-driven enterprise wearable to effect positive change among its sales associates by tapping in-store WiFi to track sales staff. Think of it as the latest evolution of headsets or walkie talkies, but much smaller and less obtrusive and voice-controlled.
Theatro's matchbox-sized device provides access to performance data to headquarters, as well as regional and individual store management teams, showing how employees communicate with each other and with shoppers, as well as where they spend the most time (e.g.: on smoke breaks or assisting customers).
Employee orientation
Large business behemoths aren't the only ones experimenting with incorporating technology into their operations. In the tastiest implementation of Google Glass yet, employees at Capriotti's sandwich shops in Las Vegas have begun using Google Glass to watch training videos and to film the "lunch rush" in order to learn how to improve service and meet customer needs. Sandwich-making videos were created, as well as tutorials on how to use various technology in the restaurant and protocol for dealing with customers, then they were loaded onto Glass.
The videos are filmed from a first-person perspective to provide employees with in-the-moment training. Despite this, there were a few unique challenges with incorporating the Glass, including some detailed training in order to not break the relatively fragile devices. Another issue has to do with privacy if, for example, employees film customer interactions in order to gauge some best practices for future training. In this case, the customers being filmed would need to sign a release form.
Athletics
As TechRadar Pro reported earlier this month, the Seattle Sounders are capitalizing on wearable tech to evaluate player performance, conditioning and signability. The team works with business intelligence and analytics company, Tableau, to visualize data generated from wearable devices to track player effectiveness. During each practice, players wear a heart-rate monitor and a GPS unit that sits in a training vest between the players' shoulder blades.
By leveraging GPS positioning on the field, speed and distance traveled, as well as off-field data like player sleep patterns, the Sounders are able to make more informed roster and training decisions.
Clearly many leading companies, large and small, are already testing a wide range of ideas in order to introduce technology into uncharted terrain for users and business processes. Wearable technology has inspired real, meaningful innovation to improve the way businesses function and the way customers interact with them.
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