Business-to-Business or B2B is a stratum of the marketplace that has customers and retailers placed at equal importance, with customers getting the most attention and retailers getting the most business. Enterprises and businesses have had to adopt a very customer-centric approach in their B2B dealings to evolve, but have faced a set of special challenges that have often tied them up in conducting their business.
Hence, a common solution to this problem statement arose, which has helped businesses and customers alike – Customer Experience Software. This tool has heavily impacted all the industries in carrying out their daily customer servicing, to boost their customer experience.
Customer experience management begins with developing strategies based on flawed assumptions and areas of improvement. Therefore, to properly identify the state of B2B customer experience management, we have to dig deeper into the various elements that have helped in its emergence and relevance in the 21st century.
Elevating Customer Experience Management – Crucial Elements
The customer experience index ratings for B2B businesses average below 50%. This is in striking contrast with the B2C segment, which directly interacts with the customers and records an index rating of between 65-85% range!
So, how does the B2B segment utilize customer experience software to boost their index ratings? Let’s take a deep dive into this topic of discussion.
Digitization – The Pinnacle of Growth for B2B CX Management
The global use of smartphones and kiosk devices has increased by over 120 million devices in the last 12 months. The rise of the use of smart devices has elevated the standards for expecting seamless and quick customer service across all the industries.
Having a real-time response to customer queries and conveniently designed apps for availing B2B services has become the new normal, and also setting very high customer expectations from businesses.
Hence, customer experience platforms are being deployed in almost every establishment, to ensure that customer satisfaction remains intact and expectations are matched efficiently. Improved customer experience achieved via customer experience management software has shown its impact on the B2B industry, with 10-20% reduction in cost to serve, significant improvement in employee satisfaction, and a staggering growth in revenue by as much as 10-15%.
Reviewing the Complex Experience of Customers and B2B Businesses
The buying patterns of customers in the B2B segment are considered more complex than any other segment. Hence, B2B businesses require much more comprehensive strategies to differentiate themselves from the competition via the medium of unique customer experience.
For instance, B2B businesses cannot rely on a single or even a group of customers’ experience to be set as their benchmark. There are varying levels of customer personas that need to be factored into creating CX strategies. To efficiently service all types of customer personas, different customer journeys need to be identified. This can be achieved effectively through conducting surveys, which are very helpful in finding out the different opinions of customers.
Making use of customer experience survey software, businesses are able to effectively capture various types of customer feedback, and identify the key takeaway points from the surveys to build upon their CX strategies.
The complex behaviours of customers and businesses alike are created due to the varying levels of the types of customers. Identification is always the key here, which once cracked, can bring in some significant revenue growth for B2B businesses. Building long-lasting relationships with the customers is all about providing a streamlined customer experience in today’s day and age.
One more factor to consider here is the users and buyers of B2B services. The distinct nature of both of these parties is also an impactful element in understanding the state of B2B CX management. For instance, an auto-parts manufacturer has buyers who are mainly the manufacturer’s procurement group.
However, the parts are mainly used by various carmaker brands’ R&D team along with their manufacturing floor workers. This identification can play a key role in determining whether the B2B business is properly targeting their leads or not. If the auto-parts manufacturer converts the lead who is the carmaker brands’ floor manager, then they have adequately captured positive growth for their business. This also helps their business in responding to the end user’s demands better.
Conclusion
The state of the B2B segment and customer experience management has evolved in the last decade. Customer experience and its improvement, although majorly associated with the B2C segment, is now as critical for B2B businesses as well.
The B2B CX management has the tougher side of the deal here though. However, with effective tools like customer experience software, the industry is acknowledging the complexity of the relationship with the customers. The competitive advantages of leveraging such tools.
Although customer-experience improvement is typically associated with B2C players, it is at least as critical in the B2B setting. While the nature of B2B relationships makes the reform challenge more difficult, with regard to customer and journey complexity, the competitive advantages and significant bottom-line gains that flow from it make the effort worthwhile.
