With just 67% of people saying that their standards for customer experience (CX) have never been higher, it’s no wonder that almost all types of companies are choosing to invest in CX.
Modern, personalized customer experiences that totally depend on cutting-edge technology have played an important role in the business-to-customer (B2C) market for many years. But nowadays business-to-business clients are needing comparable elevated client experiences.
Many organizations are currently taking on user interfaces, for example, portals, that mirror the altered and quick encounters normally found in the B2C and B2B2C markets.
As the B2B digital experience continues to play an increasingly important role in a company’s long-term success, businesses must work to improve and refine their online presence.
However, the question remains, what makes for a good B2B customer experience? So, let’s explore how organizations can meet the expectations of B2B customers and build lasting partnerships.
What is B2B Customer Experience? Why It Matters?
B2B customer experience, if said in a nutshell is every interaction your business has with your customers. We know that it is hard to manage client’s feedback, but it is much easier to manage with the help of enterprise customer feedback software/ customer experience management software.
The tricky part is that B2B marketing means more people to impress and ultimately, keep them happy. However, if you don’t do this, you will lose more revenue. There will be more long-term risk to your business and its stability. So, that’s why B2B customer experience matters. Let’s look more in-depth into the matter.
In B2B business, whatever industry you might be running, you will surely have competitors. Your competitors are just waiting for you to slip up so that they can take business away from you and increase their customer base.
Now, no one would be liking that his/her business loses out to that competition. It can end up being an expensive misstep and not just professionally frustrating.
Losing customers to competitors means reduced profits and increased marketing costs as you try to fill the gap left by your ex-customers and try growing yet again your business.
It costs more to procure new customers than it does to hold them. So, therefore, it’s non-negotiable that you need to look after what you have – your existing customer base.
By Good B2B Customer Experience What Do We Mean? How Does It Look Like?
Here are the four top tips for excelling at B2B Customer Experience
Listen, empathize, personalize
You might have heard the old saying “Treat People in a way that You would like to be treated”, and this is very much relevant in business as it is in real life.
Imagine investing your company’s budget in another business. Not only do you want your product or service to perform as expected, but you also want to feel valued and that your opinion matters. Do your customers feel this way?
Your customers are genuine individuals; they ought to be dealt with like individuals and their needs and wants must be listened to. Whether you are talking to them via phone or by sending them and quick email, you will have to make it personal and show your care to them.
In every interaction you have with your customer, make sure that they really feel heard. Be personable, approachable, and transparent.
There’s no downside to being open about what your product or service does and doesn’t do with your customers. Did they find something wrong with the content you provided? Be sympathetic and work with them to find solutions – after all, your job is to solve the specific problems they face as a business, not to improve their situation.
Earn Your Customer’s Trust
Now we are going to take a tentative step away from customer experience for a second, but trust us, there’s a reason behind doing this. Let’s for a moment focus on your lead generation strategy.
Let’s be honest, even with the absolute gold standard B2B customer experience strategy, you’ll experience periods of failure where customers will abandon you, all though there is no fault of yours. Even though you have a marketing dream team that knows exactly how to generate leads.
In today’s age, everyone is online, and customers both B2B and B2C are highly likely to see reviews prior to making the last buy.
So back to how customer experience plays a role in all of this! In short, build the trust and loyalty of your current customers with a great customer experience, and they’ll leave your business with a 5-star rating, the social proof for potential customers to succeed.
It simply won’t be enough to tell them how good you are and that you are the solution to their problems. They need to hear it from people who really matter.
Understand Your Customer’s Business and Provide Them Solutions
It is very easy for a customer to come to you with his/her preconceived ideas as to what he/she really wants to buy from you. Business is business, right? But what they are asking for is what actually the solution they need.
It may not appear glaringly evident, yet all the same, here’s one more opportunity for your customer experience to shine. You can listen to what they need and their pain points, try to comprehend their business, and make proposals that will really help them.
This will immediately build trust; clearly, you are not just doing it for money, but because you want the same as they do; doing what could be best for their business.
Try With Different Communication Channels
In today’s digital world, it is not simply enough to just be available on phone. While we personally like the traditional approach of actually talking to someone on the phone, most of the customers won’t.
The majority of people like to chat online, they personally feel comfortable doing that, so you need to ask yourself the question, how can your customers reach out to you? Apart from making phone calls, can they reach out through email or contact you via social media, or live chat?
You might put in any amount of work and create a B2B portal for your clients and just as important if you open up your communication channels, remember to stay human.
There aren’t many who like enjoying the experience of talking to a robot, and we are all about the customer experience.
Ask Your Customers for Feedback
You may think that you are winning workwise, but do you know what your customers think? Having honest conversations with them and asking them for feedback can help you to understand your customer’s needs better.
By knowing what they think and then taking steps to improve your product, shows them that you care and that their opinion really matters to you. According to research, 91% of dissatisfied customers leave a company without complaint, thus, getting the ball out of the court, seeking feedback (with customer experience software), and making changes can help you avoid being one of the 91%.
Going through regular feedback cycles also helps you better understand your business and your customers and stay ahead of them by anticipating problems and fixing them before they happen.
Invest Your Whole Team in Customer Experience
Absolutely, your customer success team is the one leading the way, flying the flag for your customers. They deal with them the whole day in and out, listening to your customers’ wants and needs and communicating the same thing internally with the team.
However, it simply doesn’t start with them and ends with them. Your customers can break or make your business, so every single member of your team needs to make the customer experience their business.
Every department in your business must think about their customers’ needs. What might they at any point do on their own would prefer to convey the gold standard experience you are striving for?
How do they make your customers’ lives easier? You can only truly become a customer-centric company if you work together to put the B2B client experience extremely important to everybody.
While there’s a lot to consider here if we want to strip it all down and get back to basics, our message is simple: better than anyone else. Many organizations guarantee that customers are their number one priority, but the truth is quite different.
With a perfectly personal, customer-centric approach, it doesn’t matter what your competitors are doing, even if they’re priced below you. You will construct a faithful client base that will stick with you because of you.
Creating an environment that effectively meets customer needs and resolves all issues in a timely and understanding manner is the ultimate goal for your customers.
