A better customer value proposition helps you to make the customers satisfied with products and services. But today, customers slip away quickly when they receive better offers. It implies that your business might earn customer satisfaction but not their loyalty. Both - loyalty and satisfaction - lies at the intersection point of customer experience.

Take a look at a couple of statistics:

• Only 14% of the B2B companies have customer experience deeply ingrained in the business DNA.
• 74% of the B2B buyers expect personalized offers; else, they turn to competitors.
• The customers are ready to pay 16% more for a better customer experience.

All these stats boil down to one fact - a customer experience that stays at the heart of B2B business, are given less credence by businesses while are expected the most by customers. 

Simply said, only those brands who are connecting with their customers at an emotional level, are making their journey easy, and are delivering a wow-factor would outperform.

The positive experience is making the customers spend more and helping businesses increase the ROI. The strategy works wild within the B2C segment, and Amazon Prime is the best instance for it. With Prime, Amazon has been delivering a unique experience to the customers and growing the revenue by a high margin.  

Alas! Most of the B2B companies don’t realize the success with excellent customer experience. As a result, the B2B landscape is profoundly suffering from churn-out, brand switching, and bad word of mouth, which is a recipe for disaster. 

Nonetheless, some of the B2B companies have started shifting the focus from value proposition-oriented selling to customer-centric selling. They have been making efforts to engineer the best customer experience across the board, and it has been paying them off with amplified loyalty and a boost in revenues.

Want to differentiate your company in B2B space? If so, you have to create amazing experiences that customers choose to do business with you. However, it’s not all plain-sailing. B2B business occurs at a large scale with considerable investment, and the legacy system could hinder the transformation due to less appetite for change. 

Don’t fret. It doesn’t mean enriching the customer experience is out of capability for B2B companies. You can build the wow experience around products and services by incorporating the following elements into the CX initiative. 

Here Are the Tips to Build a Great B2B Customer Experience:

1. Ride the Digital Bandwagon

Gone are the days when people would, and could, wait calmly for hours and days to get a response to their query. Today, the customers are already using advanced technologies and accustomed to receiving answers at the fingertips in a matter of seconds, which has made it essential for the B2B firms to meet the minimum expectations.

There is a dire need to invest in digital systems that would automate the small tasks and make the business offerings available 24/7 - provides a competitive edge to your business.  

For instance, the AI chatbots apps are adding a layer of automation in customer interactions where intelligent bots communicate with the customers, resolve the queries at speed, and provide tailored suggestions by connecting the dots. According to a GoodFirms survey, 54.29% of people are now opting chatbots for moderate interactions that could cover many segments of customer acquisition efforts for B2B businesses. 

Leveraging the new technology surpasses the human capacity of sifting through customer’s data in a few seconds, which gives a wow-factor. 

2. Make Use of Customer Data

Currently, a majority of the B2B customers feel that the companies sell their products rather than serve their needs. And sadly, amidst much noise, the companies don’t have enough time to understand the customers before interacting with them. It creates a disconnect between the company and its customers. That’s where the treasure of data is invaluable. 

The wealth of data is segregated into - demographics, customer behavior, customer preferences, and customer trends. By analyzing these data sets, the rich insights can be drawn that help in knowing the customers better and delivering the best experiences.

For instance, when B2B companies identify customer’s unmet needs and pain points and address them proactively, the customer never looks further. The same happened with HP Ink, the company that solved their customers’ “Running out” problem by - tracking their customer’s ink usage and creating a solution that automatically replaces it. The company now enjoys customer’s satisfaction, as well as unwavering loyalty.

3. Get Started with Hyper-Personalization

According to a Gallup Survey, 68% of B2B customers are lost because of indifference or perceived apathy, not because of mistakes.

It’s a startling fact! With growing personalization preferences, the B2B customers no longer like to be treated and sold with a one-size-fits-all approach. The lack of personalization in the services makes the customer feel their needs are not covered entirely, and something is missing in the buying journey. It put the B2B companies on the risk of becoming just a commodity for the customers.

B2B companies should focus on delivering value-added services by meeting the customer’s needs at every point in a personalized way. When personalization is the concurrent point of all, be it customer interactions, product recommendations, or cross-selling, the customer feels valued and appreciated.

For example, - For years, loyalty programs have worked great. But now, customer requirements have changed, and one reward system doesn’t work anymore. It’s necessary to create a set of value-driven loyalty programs, to make the customers feel rewarded, such as special rebates for returning customers, a referral program to bring more buyers, privilege access to potential customers, and pretty more. 

When B2B companies nurture the leads and serve the customers in the buying journey by acting on the data from different touch-points, it ups the ante of personalization game because the customers get what matters the most to them in an intuitive fashion.   

4. Implement an Omni-Channel Support

There is a multitude of ways, such as phone calls, billboards, web advertisements, on-site visits, or social channels, which allow the customers to get connected and interact with the company. Each of these channels that customers use delivers an experience to the customers and influences their decisions. 

So, a unified experience should be rendered across all the channels, which makes the customers feel they are getting consistent expertise while dealing with the brand regardless of the channel they are using. 

My two cents: Don’t consider customer experience and sales cycle as two different identities. They are tightly interwoven, and when integrated rightly, they can change the fabric of success.

5. Be Agile

Building the right customer experience is not a one-time process. Instead, it’s an ongoing process where changes in market trends, technology, and legislation should be considered to improve the customer experience continuously. Else, it doesn’t take much time for the army of loyal fans to move over to other players in the market. 

Keep your business riding the waves. Stay agile, be open to coming changes in the customer journey and re-discover the customer interactions, and deliver the experience that wow the customers. 

Gathering customers’ feedback is one such instance - it has now shifted from contact forms and online surveys to AI-powered live chatbots. Automated tools are used to analyze the customer’s passive behavior, and that has redefined customer interactions, customer journeys, and customer experience. 

Stay receptive to customer-centric evolution that allows B2B companies to enhance the customer experience continuously.

Takeaway

Let’s accept it: The modern customers don’t purchase the products due to unique features it offers at competitive rates; instead, it’s the experience that makes them buy the product, no matter if they are B2B or B2C customers.

In the experience economy, only those B2B companies witness tremendous growth, earn loyal customers, and reap huge rewards that sell immersive experience with products. It’s a sign the customer experience means a lot, which should not be overlooked at any cost.

Lay the foundation of B2B Company on the strong pillars of unmatched customer experience to bring the custom-centric vision in everything that business does. Focus on the five principles mentioned above that will help you engineer an excellent B2B customer experience. All the best!