3 Ways to Improve the B2B Customer Experience
In a recent report, Accenture said that “90% of B2B cite CX (customer experience) as a key factor in achieving their companies’ strategic priorities.
According to an article by Matthew Sweezy, published in Convince and Convert, 80% of B2B buyers expect the same buying experience as B2C customers, which means enabling companies to respond and interact with them in real-time.
Speaking of expectations, B2B buyers have a much higher demand than B2C customers:
- Up to 75% of clients await to send personalised offers to their company, and
- Unless a company tries to personalise communications with its company, 65% of business buyers are likely to resort to other sellers.
In short, B2B promoters can no longer pass over the importance of CX, dissolving it as a B2B marketing trend.
CX Maturity of B2B Companies:
According to Gartner, 81% of companies compete in 2019 on a more or less customer experience basis. Thus, rather than price or product quality, the customer experience will soon be the difference for businesses, even in the B2B space.
In November 2015, Temkin Group published groundwork about the CX maturity levels of B2B. Only 3% of B2B consider customer experience an integral part of their company culture.
Luckily, things are changing at the moment. A 2018 record on “The State of CX Management” by the Tempak Group states that 54% of companies want to be industry leaders in customer experience over the next three years.
The report compared CX leaders to those who were behind CX and noted that “Leaders get stronger financial results are more likely to be senior executives in the company’s senior CX efforts. And hire more CX employees.”
3 Areas to Improve the B2B Customer Experience
Changing your B2B customer experience will increase your bottom line, we’ll tell you how…
1. Follow the ‘Customer-Centric’ Business Strategy
As per the research, only 14% of giant B2B companies in 2016 said they were customer-centric. According to this statement, B2B companies need to do much to become customer-centric.
Yet, this statement can help intelligent B2B companies gain competitiveness in the marketplace. And improve profitability by providing a superior customer experience to their customers.
To achieve this, your company needs to be part of the 14% of companies having customer experience. And are involved in their company culture. This means that you need to engage all your employees not only to someone who is in HR and is working to understand customer requirements.
The most victorious companies in this view are cross-functional teams. In which all departments work together to influence the customer experience. One CMO article states, “Creating a happy customer is not only a marketing effort, customer service, product development, ARD teams, operations and IT all play a role.”
Yet, only 12% of B2B marketers are aligned with functional teams as a whole CX strategy.”
2. Make It Easy for Business Buyers to do Business with You
In all B2B markets, it is easy to do business with a supplier for customer loyalty and satisfaction. Thus, companies should make it easier for business buyers to get them by leveraging technology to ease seamless transactions and interactions.
Besides, it’s becoming relevant for companies to interact with their buyers in real-time which is a key factor in closing sales by facilitating the online buyer’s sales journey.
The adoption of technology in this regard is a major game-changer. Facilitate the omnichannel communication between suppliers and business buyers in real-time. Omnichannel aims to provide its buyers with a consistent and personalised experience that simplifies their buyer travel. Regardless of the medium, they choose to interact with. It’s easier said than done, right?
Not at all.
Co-browsing features, as well as the latest technology such as AI-enabled chatbots and live chat software, enable your buyers to connect at different points in their ustomer journey.
In the above mentioned Accenture Strategy report, CX leaders agree that B2B buyers should adopt the technology to upgrade your customer experience.
According to the report, masters have greater potential for the disruptive effect. 73% of BGL surveys believe that smart gadgets and the Internet of Things (IoT) will completely vary according to the way they market, sell and serve their business buyers. In Masters, that number is up to 8%. “… Most Masters intend to use Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create interactions with customers and channel partners (83% vs 68%).”
So, it is vital to invest in the right technology to transform your customer experience and increase your sales.
See Also: 5 Best Marketing Campaigns in India
Some Important Techniques to Improve your Customer Experience
• Live Chat
An investigation by the American Marketing Association established that companies which use live chat have increased conversions by 20% compared to companies that don’t.
The reason is simple, real-time chat introduces buyer query resolution faster by connecting buyers with support agents. Agents can arrive at the most opportune time on their shopping journey to maximise opportunities for interaction with customers.
• Co-browsing
Co-browsing technology provides a powerful visual engagement tool for businesses committed to delivering a seamless experience to their customers.
With co-browsing technology, your agents can view your customers’ browsers without having to go to their physical location. And fix their problems on time, which results in an 18% improvement in first call resolution and a 14% error in call handling.
• Chat Bot
Chatbots provide customers with the right way to scale their customer support activities by providing 24/7 online support. By using a chatbot on your website, you can help your users find answers to their problems in real-time. So that searching the site one by one is not a waste of time.
As chatbots are full of AI capabilities, all you have to do is build your existing FAQs, chat history, and knowledge base on the foundation of your BOT. Besides dealing with large amounts of interactions in a short span of time; The use of a chatbot enables conversations, and personalised recommendations for users leads to better browsing experience for users.
See Also: B2B Marketing Strategies: Guide to Win your Customers
3. Provide a Personalised Experience
When you step into a clothing store — you don’t want your neighbours to dress up. In fact, are you happy that you have a good experience? Because of the personal attention given by the shop staff to save your time and personal care?
The same philosophy applies to B2B buyers.
Today, organisations are not inspecting for one-size-fits-all solutions. But recognise vendors who can give personalised recommendations based on their business needs and budget.
“66% of consumers said they could change brands by treating them as a number rather than an individual.” Of course, when B2B buyers have endless information and choice. They need to stand out from the rationalised competition. And reach their customers on time.
“By 2020, 75% of business buyers expect companies to verify their requirements. And make relevant suggestions before launching the acquisition. At the same time, 73% expect that the products they buy will diagnose problems. And order automatic replacement parts or services.”
But how do you achieve that?
Technology is once again helping you by providing you with deep insights into your customer behaviour that will help you personalise every point in your customer journey.
Related: Consumer Decision-Making Process: Everything you need to know
Conclusion
The customer experience strategy is important for companies that want to be successful.
So, to develop a customer-oriented culture, within the Business to business company. It is relevant to deliver excellent customer experiences across all levels of the business. Do this by providing proper training to employees and continuous updates to the latest technology to ease seamless transactions.
We hope you find this article helpful.
Would love to know your suggestions in the comment section.
