4 CX Tech Trends Transforming the B2B Space

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Customer satisfaction is the key that can unlock everything from higher conversion rates to improved branding for your company. However, it can be hard to know how to move the needle on the customer experience (CX), especially in the B2B market. This is where tech-fueled tools and solutions can be a huge help.

Where should you start when it comes to leveraging tech to give your organization serious CX advantages? One suggestion is to look at the tech trends affecting CX across all industries. Knowing what’s trending can help you determine which strategies to use to transform your CX and wow your clients.

Below are four of the most prevalent tech-backed methods that are moving the CX needle for forward-leaning companies. Even if you only adopt one or two in the next year, you’ll give your business an extra edge. After all, anything you can do to bump up CX translates into happier, more engaged clients.

1. Offering personalization through data

Personalization has arisen as one of the top expectations among consumers in general. Twilio reporting shows that 49% of people will buy again from a brand that offers personalized touchpoints. Though Twilio concentrated on B2C customers, the same desire for personalization has overflowed into the B2B world. After all, B2B buyers are still consumers. They’re just making purchases on behalf of a company instead of for themselves.

The first challenge is figuring out how and where to infuse the personal touch. The second challenge is determining if personalization is working. In both cases, data can be the answer.

If your company is gathering data on leads, you can begin to map out personalized journeys. For instance, you could use buyers’ first names and mention their companies in your email marketing content. You could even create personalized landing pages based on visitors’ prior actions on your website.

What you choose to personalize is up to your marketing team. Just make sure that you’re using data to test what’s working and what’s not. Remember: Data can be incredibly valuable, but only if you listen to what it says. As you get more proficient at testing your personalization attempts, your sales funnel should fill faster.

2. Closing time-to-hire gaps with digital verification

The labor market is very uneven at the moment. As a result, you may feel like filling vacant positions takes longer than usual. That’s not good for your business, as unfilled roles can lead to unfulfilled B2B clients who aren’t getting exceptional CX.

The workaround for this issue can be found in closing your average time-to-hire rates. For example, if you can shave off 10 or 20 percent, you can get high-quality candidates working much faster. It doesn’t matter if they’re in your support, sales, or IT department: Every employee is important to CX.

One place to cut down on time-to-hire and avoid losing top applicants is to speed up the overall verification process. Usually, this means working with a background check and staffing company. The only problem is that background check and staffing companies sometimes take awhile to send back reports. In the meantime, you could miss out on bringing a high performer aboard.

Obviously, you can’t not verify the accuracy of potential employees’ information. Nonetheless, you can make sure that your preferred income and employment verification provider uses a platform like Truework for quick verification. Truework’s online process typically produces accurate payroll and employment verification within one to three days. That’s a tighter turnaround and means you can get results from your background check and staffing partner rapidly. During the interim, you can keep the conversation going with exceptional candidates so they remain engaged. If all goes well, you’ll be able to close those critical time-to-hire gaps and never miss a chance to wow a client.

3. Rising self-service options

Most people are accustomed to being able to self-serve and solve problems on their own. Yet the B2B sector has been a little slow to move to self-service—until now, that is. In recent years, B2B companies have realized their buyers will use self-serve options if they’re available.

Self-service will mean something different to you and your brand based on what you sell. Let’s say that your clients purchase heavy equipment and machinery. Some self-service ideas for you to offer could be troubleshooting videos. Or, you might offer virtual reality VR walk-throughs to augment training.

What if you’re in a service industry? AI chatbots could be helpful in handling concerns or setting up tickets. And content such as how-to articles and blog posts based on your most prevalent FAQs are all valuable.

When considering strategies to incorporate digital self-service into your CX, feel free to brainstorm. There are tons of possibilities out there. Just be certain that any you try gives true power to the user. Also, develop KPIs so you can track the performance of each strategy to ensure it works.

4. Dabbling with metaverse concepts

The metaverse is unfolding as we speak. No one is quite sure what web 3.0 will look like, but it’s clear that web 2.0 isn’t going to last forever. Although you might not be ready to completely embrace the metaverse, it’s fine to dabble with metaverse concepts.

An example of metaverse-style CX could involve creating digital twins. McKinsey explains that digital twins can become the foundation for immersive client experiences. If you’re unfamiliar with the way digital twins work, they’re digital representations of real-world objects. However, instead of having to build the objects, the digital twin can show how the object would react and work.

Digital twin technologies are in their infancy and still have a lot of room to grow. Nevertheless, they could help your buyers better understand how your product or service works. Best of all, you wouldn’t have to be in the same space as your buyers for them to view a digital twin. Everything could happen remotely, which may be more convenient for all parties.

Another way to dive into the metaverse is to use NFTs to reward clients. NFTs are becoming less of a consumer fad. In a commercial market, you might present your clients with exclusive NFTs at the end of the year. It’s certainly not inconceivable that many of your clients will one day want to pay in cryptocurrency. If that’s something you’re open to talking about now, NFTs could open the door to a discussion.

The B2B space is ripe for digital transformation from so many angles. Take some time this quarter to plan ways to lean into tech trends to improve your CX. You’ll end up with clients more apt to stay loyal and shower you with repeat business.

Image credit: Manuel Geissinger; Pexels

Chalmers Brown
Chalmers is the Co-founder and CTO of Due. He writes for some of the largest publications and brands in the world including Forbes, The Next Web, American Express, and many more.

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