In the modern and highly competitive market, customer experience is the key to take off a business. Especially in a changing landscape where B2B customers hold significant power, B2B Customer Experience can significantly help a business stand out from the competition.
In a world of unlimited choices, an unsatisfied customer may choose another business over yours, giving you an edge over the competition. That’s why B2B businesses must focus their efforts on creating a unique customer experience so that they continue to be the number 1 choice of their customers.
What are the steps to improve B2B Customer Experience?
- Get a customer-centric vision
- Deliver personalized experiences
- Use Customer Service Technology
- Educate your customers
- Offer after-sales support
- Communicate with your customers in real time
- Proactive customer service: does it really exist?
- Optimize the accessibility and usability of your site
- Collect customer feedback
- Stay consistent with your brand
- Integrate Loyalty programs
1. Know your customers
Getting to know your customers plays a primary role in designing the ideal B2B Customer Experience. Don’t forget that your B2B customers are people representing a business. What does this mean?
This means that they are usually under pressure, as they are responsible for the budget given to them by a company to perform a job, while they have to deal with the consequences when they have not made the right choice. When making a purchase they often experience anxiety, so a customer experience that will calm their fears will make it easier for them to make the ideal choice.
Tip: Create detailed customer personas to understand your customers in depth. With frequent surveys you can gather feedback on points in your service that can be improved.
2. Get a customer-centric vision
B2B Customer Experience is built through every interaction a customer has with your business. Every type of communication, whether telephone or electronic, contributes to forming a certain perception of a customer about your company.
Adopting a customer-centric strategy will turn every interaction you have with the customer into a positive experience. Customers can tell when service is focused on them and when on making a sale, so when communicating, prioritize the human factor.
Tip: Cultivate the soft skills of your employees so that they become masters in communication and customer service, creating an unbeatable CX!
3. Deliver personalized experiences
One thing B2C and B2B customers have in common is that they want to feel like they’re getting personalized service. Specifically, 73% of customers expect companies to understand their specialized needs and to proceed with the corresponding actions.
Take your time to get to know your customers and propose solutions that meet their needs. Customize your communication and offers to meet the specific needs of each of your customers.
Tip: Use information or even data from previous contacts with a specific customer to suggest personalized solutions.
4. Use Customer Service Technology
It is evident how much Artificial Intelligence has entered the digital world for good! Both customers and businesses use technological means to communicate and search for information or products. With AI tools to automate tasks and the use of machine learning, you can ensure a smooth communication with your customers and create a competitive B2B Customer Experience.
And of course don’t forget CRM, the master in customer management! With CRM you can keep your customer records in one platform, which you can access at any time. CRM is one of the most powerful tools to take off the customer experience of your business!
5. Educate your customers
One of the most common complaints from B2B customers is about sales representatives, who are often portrayed as pushy and unhelpful. Therefore, a more consultative approach is necessary when servicing customers.
Typically, B2B customers have done research before making a purchase, so they prefer to receive new information from sales representatives, rather than discuss topics they already know.
Tip: By training and providing targeted advice to your clients, you can establish yourself as an expert in a specific industry and increase the credibility of your business!
6. Offer after-sales support
Have you just completed a successful sale? This may be a success for your business, but the game of creating an ideal B2B Customer Experience does not end there! You need to be by your customer’s side even after the purchase is completed to help them with any problems or just to make sure they are satisfied with your services.
Continuing to serve your customers after the purchase, in addition to improving the customer experience, will also benefit your business! By staying in touch with your customers, you ensure that when their business needs change, they will turn to you for new purchases.
7. Communicate with your customers in real time
Speed of response is a big asset in CX and something that is highly valued by every customer. Especially in the case of B2B customers, where there is an extra pressure, fast service can make you stand out from the competition.
Live chats are ideal for real-time service. Respond immediately to your customers’ questions and problems and set clear response time limits so that you are consistent throughout your communication.
Tip: Social media offers the most widespread channels to get in touch with your customers. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are ideal platforms to respond to customer requests immediately.
8. Proactive customer service: does it really exist?
Proactive customer service exists, and while it may seem like a magic solution, it’s actually based on very specific metrics and data. By analyzing the customer health score and tracking the customer journey you can gain useful information about a customer’s interaction with your business.
By creating customer journey maps you can visualize and understand the course of your brand’s communication with your customers and detect your weak points. This way, you will be able to tailor your strategy to create a unique B2B Customer Experience.
9. Optimize the accessibility and usability of your site
The main advantage of the internet is that it is easily accessible to everyone, at least compared to physical locations. Having your business online ensures that you can attract a wide audience and many more potential customers.
However, this ease of exposure for your business does not come without a cost. In order to reach your audience, you need to create a functional website with easy navigation for users.
Tip: design a smooth and functional UI, add useful educational content, consider features such as alt text for images and pay attention to the responsive design of your pages.
10. Collect customer feedback
It’s often difficult to understand what customers think about your business. The easiest way is to conduct surveys or ask your customers to fill out questionnaires to pinpoint exactly where your service needs fixing or to find out what sets you apart from the competition.
Of course, based on the feedback you receive from your surveys, the corresponding adjustments must follow. This way you will both improve and show your customers that you take their feedback seriously.
11. Stay consistent with your brand
Branding is not only about creating a distinctive visual image for your business, but also about how you communicate with your audience. Consistency in branding is an important factor in creating a B2B Customer Experience that will make you stand out in a highly competitive market.
By maintaining a single identity at every touch point, you will help build customer trust, recognition and loyalty to your business. Consistency in every branch of your brand will create emotional connections with your customers, who will choose you for their purchases.
12. Integrate Loyalty programs
Who doesn’t love loyalty programs? As in the case of B2C customers, B2B loyalty programs can also incentivize long-term relationships. By recognizing and rewarding your customers’ loyalty, you give your audience a reason to engage with your business more often.
Loyalty programs can also provide you with valuable data and insights about your audience that you can leverage to improve your customer experience.
Create an unbeatable B2B CX with NUS Solutions!
Customer experience may be a matter of communication and effective management, but one thing is certain: the right modern tools will give you the foundations to deliver the ideal CX to your customers.
Through modern systems such as specialized applications for businesses and CRM systems, you can effectively manage your customer base and offer high-quality service to the customers who trust you.
Trust the experts and benefit from the countless possibilities of Digital Transformation!
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