• by Aaron Baar , December 22, 2014

More connected home devices means greater opportunities for consumers to have issues with them, and thus, more opportunity to help fix them.

According to research from Parks Associates, more than half of U.S. broadband households with a connected home device are willing to pay a nominal fee a month for home tech support services. The research found that 56% of households were willing to pay $9.99 per month, while 43% were willing to go as high as $39.99 per month for the peace of mind.

Currently, according to Parks, only 16% of U.S. households have a smart home device. However, one-third of them has experienced at least one technical problem with the device. As more households get smart devices, there will be more opportunities to correct technical issues, says Tom Kerber, director of research for Parks Associates.

“[The number of] those who [currently] subscribe to tech support services is in the single digit [percentages],” Kerber tells Marketing Daily. “It’s an area of growth opportunity.”

The interest in comprehensive support services increases proportionately to the number of devices owned. Among households with 20 or more connected devices, 68% of them are willing to pay an annual fee of $99.99 or higher for technical support. 

“The latent demand is there,” Kerber says. “Everyone’s going to add connectivity to their products [and nearly] everyone’s going to have problems with them.

While many consumers expect technical support through the warranty life of a given product, the opportunity comes in being able to offer assistance beyond that time period.

“A lot of people are trying to experiment and understand what model drives adoption,” Kerber says. “The bundling approach seems to have the strongest momentum.”