In today’s hyper-connected global marketplace, customer experience may be the only thing that determines whether a deal is closed or not. As such, more companies in the B2B industry are beginning to adopt strategies that make the buying process as smooth and easy as possible. For instance, for some companies, this means training reps and customer service agents to be more knowledgeable about a customer’s business. Meanwhile, some businesses opt to adopt customer experience management software to better track customer interactions.
To help B2B companies create more effective strategies for managing and improving the customer experience, this article gathers the best practices for B2B customer experience management. We also cover some of the most important challenges of the process so businesses can better prepare their teams and refine their strategies.
Best Practices for B2B Customer Experience Management
The B2B industry has undergone numerous changes in the past couple of years. For instance, while the B2B deals were traditionally closed through a series of in-person meetings, health protocols have forced buyers to look for other sales channels such as ecommerce sites. B2B buyers’ expectations and preferences have changed, as well, with these customers expecting fast, easy, personalized interactions during the shopping process.
Of course, B2B companies face their fair share of challenges in meeting their clients’ evolving needs. For instance, a 2022 report states that 46% of companies considered a lack of communication between teams their top barrier to delivering a topnotch customer experience.
Source: The RevOps Difference
According to B2B experts, one way to deal with such challenges is to invest in tools and establish processes that help with capturing data on customer usage and gathering customer feedback. The sections below also explore some strategies that can help companies improve their processes for managing the customer experience. We’ve also included some examples of customer experience management tools that B2B companies can invest in to streamline their internal workflows for such processes.
What is B2B customer experience management?
In the B2B industry, customer experience management refers to processes or workflows that aim to improve the buying experience for clients. In most cases, these workflows involve collecting huge amounts of customer data and tracking customer interactions and purchase history. Doing so not only provides insights into future purchasing behavior but also helps reps add context to customer interactions. In turn, this can help companies make the customer journey easier and more productive.
Though both processes aim to improve the customer experience, there are some significant differences between B2C and B2B customer experience management. These differences mostly result from the fact that B2C and B2B customer journeys don’t follow the same patterns. For one, the sales cycle tends to be longer with B2B clients, since the buying decision usually involves more stakeholders. As such, reps and customer service teams must be prepared to deal with weeks and months of building and nurturing relationships with prospects, even before a deal is successfully closed.
Moreover, B2B clients often encounter more complex issues compared to B2C customers. These issues tend to require more communication with customer service teams, who must be able to provide expert assistance beyond basic troubleshooting.
Importance of B2B Customer Experience Management
B2B companies stand to gain various benefits from improving customer experiences and streamlining processes for customer experience (CX) management. Various surveys and studies on customer service have already discovered that over 70% of customers remain loyal to brands who provide a positive customer experience. These statistics also indicate that loyal customers tend to be more willing to spend more money because of the customer service they receive. In turn, this has a direct impact on a company’s bottom line.
More data also indicates that increasing customer retention contributes to an increase in profit. More specifically, brands who are able to improve their customer retention rate by 5% stand to gain as much as 95% increase in profits. This can prove to be an effective way to boost ROI.
As a result of these benefits, B2B companies who prioritize CX management also potentially enjoy higher customer lifetime value and reduced customer churn. Since CX management provides valuable insights into buyer behavior, businesses can also refine their marketing strategies and lower marketing costs.
Given these benefits, it’s no wonder that B2B companies have started to prioritize the improvement of their customers’ buying journey.
Source: 2022 State of B2B Digital Marketing
Challenges in B2B Customer Experience Management
Like with the B2C industry, B2B companies also face challenges in meeting the changing needs of their clients. These challenges can get in the way of companies providing the best shopping experience to their customers.
Data silos
In most cases, data silos stem from an inability to properly manage and leverage CX data. As a result, only one or two departments have full access to this valuable data, which can lead to poor customer service and ineffective marketing strategies.
Data silos can cause problems with your CX strategies and can render reps and customer service teams inefficient. Businesses that seek support from vendors expect their point of contact to already know about their business’ specific background and service history, if any. Often, this data may be located on multiple business tools, making it difficult to access. In other cases, data may also be siloed per department, so one team can’t access another team’s data.
Both types of data silos can be problematic for businesses, as these can result in reduced productivity and hurt a business’ bottom line. For instance, if a sales rep can’t access a client’s previous interactions with customer service, he or she won’t know if the customer already has an open issue. Upsell opportunities are also wasted, reducing the effectiveness of sales strategies.
A consistent omnichannel experience
These days, B2B customers expect an omnichannel experience just like B2C customers. This means B2B buyers want more than one platform for browsing and making their purchases. According to recent surveys, for instance, B2B customers are now more open to using channels such as social media and ecommerce to order products and services.
The expectation for an omnichannel experience also extends beyond the sales process. B2B customers now expect to be able to reach suppliers and vendors on a wide variety of channels, including the channel of their choice.
With these expectations from customers, the challenge for B2B companies lies in providing a consistent experience to customers, wherever platform they order or whatever contact point they choose. One way to overcome this challenge is to adopt tools for building a positive customer experience. These tools can often be integrated with each other to ensure the seamless accessibility of all the data they store.
Scaling CX programs to unique B2B requirements
Another challenge many B2B companies face in CX management is scaling CX strategies to meet the unique needs of their clients. Many companies find out the hard way that B2C strategies won’t necessarily work in a B2B setting. This is because B2B CX often work on the account level, while CX strategies work based on customers’ individual feedback. As such, B2B companies must find a way to correlate overall account health to user-level feedback.
To ensure the effectiveness of CX strategies, B2B companies must also understand each client’s unique needs and challenges. In some cases, this may require sales reps and customer service teams to undergo additional training to develop listening skills and become more proactive in anticipating clients’ needs. Sales reps would also do well to learn about a client’s strengths, competitive edge, and business values. In this way, buyers also feel that reps are invested in their business’ growth.
Best Practices for B2B Customer Experience Management
It may take some work to achieve the efficient customer experience management B2B companies aim for, but it’s not impossible. Below are some best practices for B2B customer experience management you can try to streamline the CX processes of your organization.
1. Make the shopping experience fast and easy
As we’ve previously discussed, B2B customers have become more open to using other channels to evaluate new suppliers and orders through ecommerce sites and other online options. This makes it crucial for B2B companies to deliver ecommerce websites and platforms that make it easier for B2B buyers to browse products and shop. A fast, convenient shopping experience important for B2B buyers who order in high volumes.
Easily recognizable product categories and hierarchies and intuitive menus ensure that buyers can quickly find the products they want. Site search must also be optimized for faster product discovery. This is especially important for B2B companies with large product catalogues. Optimizing site search ensures that client can find the specific SKU he wants in seconds.
B2B ecommerce sites must also provide rich product content in the form of high-quality photos, relevant videos, and detailed product descriptions. Having these media on mobile ecommerce sites also makes it possible for B2B buyers to conveniently shop on their mobile devices.
2. Provide self-service options when possible
Self-service options also go a long way in improving the B2B customer experience. Aside from ecommerce sites, B2B companies can set up self-service tools for processes such as reordering and basic troubleshooting.
For instance, you can provide easy, autonomous access to support documentation and other important product information through an online knowledge base. This knowledge base can provide answers to basic questions so B2B buyers don’t have to contact your support team. The resource can also contain product images, brochures, and material lists so B2B buyers can quickly find additional information on their purchases.
In addition to answers to basic troubleshooting or support questions, you can also configure your website to allow users to download lists of product variants they can choose from. Such lists can also include important details such as product pricing, available quantities, and restock dates.
Another useful self-service option for B2B buyers is a chatbot. You can add automated chatbots to your website, and these chatbots can proactively engage with clients and answer any questions they may have. These chatbots can also be used to direct clients to relevant webpages. All these self-service options empower B2B buyers in finding the information they need and resolving simple product issues on their own.
3. Personalize product recommendations and services
Like B2C customers, B2B buyers also appreciate getting service that’s personalized to their needs. Providing personalized services also demonstrates a vendor’s understanding of a client’s needs, which encourages loyalty in that client.
For instance, you can achieve this by providing product recommendations tailored to their purchase history, business needs, and buying interests. These suggested products can be displayed prominently on sales channels, including the homepage of the ecommerce site and on search results. You can also provide personalized content such as calls to action and ads. Such content can lead clients to products they might be interested in reordering.
B2B companies can also add personalization to the CPQ process, especially in cases where different product configurations result in different prices. You can set up a portal where customers can log in to view accurate pricing depending on their account and the discounts and pricing rules they’re entitled to. In this way, buyers learn of pricing updates even at the beginning of the buying process.
4. Ensure real-time interactions with customers
B2B buyers also appreciate prompt responses to their queries. In fact, studies have found that 80% of B2B buyers expect real-time interactions with suppliers and vendors. As such, sales reps and customer service teams must always be ready to communicate with clients if needed.
You can improve your organization’s customer communication strategies by employing tools such as chatbots. By catering to simpler queries from clients, chatbots also free up reps and customer service teams to focus on resolving more complex issues. Reps also get enough time to interact with clients and build more meaningful relationships, improving the overall buying experience.
Communicating with B2B buyers also requires transparency and responsiveness. This means promptly relaying information about pricing, shipping, and delivery so buyers don’t get any surprises upon checkout. Clients should also be able to access real-time information on order status and inventory levels.
5. Provide an omnichannel experience
An omnichannel CX experience ensures seamlessness and consistency across the different touchpoints, channels, and devices used by B2B buyers. This means if a customer starts his buying journey via a chatbot on your ecommerce site, he can easily pick up where he left off when he moves to a call with a sales rep. This integration ensures that the shopping process is as convenient as possible for B2B buyers.
Likewise, B2B companies can also provide omnichannel customer support. With this type of customer support, sales reps and customer service teams get access to a full history of interactions with the customer. This data allows service agents to add context to interactions, even as the interactions move from one channel to another. Such strategies also allow B2B companies to meet customers on the channels they prefer.
In most cases, providing an omnichannel experience means using software and tools that allow for the integration of disparate systems for sales, marketing, CRM, and customer service. Such customer experience management platforms typically collect customer data, such as customer profiles, interaction history, and purchase history into a single location for easier access.
A CEM software solution like Zendesk (pictured) puts customer conversations in one place, helping different teams stay on the same page.
Examples of Customer Experience Management Software
Zendesk
Zendesk provides customer support apps that improve customer retention and lead generation efforts. B2B companies can set up live chat, call center services, and a knowledge base, all of which help improve communications with clients. Zendesk also allows sales and customer service teams to leverage customer data to discover business insights for improving customer relationships.
Alchemer
Alchemer serves as a platform for distributing surveys and discovering Voice of the Customer insights. The software comes with pre-configured survey templates and workflows to make it easier for users to collect customer feedback. Moreover, the platform readily integrates with third-party software, including CRM and ERP tools for seamless syncing of customer data.
Qualtrics CX
Qualtrics CX streamlines workflows for collecting customer feedback. The platform comes with a predictive intelligence engine capable of discovering key insights and factors that affect customer experience. Aside from this engine, the software helps users create transactional and pulse surveys designed for improved response rates and easier data collection.
Verified Reviews
Verified Reviews can help B2B companies improve their brand’s reputation through testimonials and product and customer reviews. The software collates website and product reviews and also notifies users of reviews that could negatively affect their image. Rich snippets and integration with social media also ensure that positive reviews appear prominently on SERPs and social media channels.
Nice inContact CXone
Nice inContact CXone works as a contact center software that offers comprehensive features such as automatic call distribution, predictive dialers, and AI chatbots. The platform also comes with skills-based routing, which ensures that customers are connected to the right agent. Users can also automate workflows through conversational IVR for basic processes such as verifying customer identity.
How do you improve B2B customer experience management?
Although improving B2B CX sounds complicated and daunting, it’s far from impossible. You can refine such strategies in your organization by making the customer the focus. For instance, product recommendations and factors such as pricing and delivery terms must be tailored according to clients’ unique needs. Omnichannel strategies for sales and support also go a long way in ensuring a seamless, more convenient customer experience.
B2B companies must also be open to integrating tools and technology for improving B2B CX management. These tools can integrate multiple systems to make customer data easier to access and streamline communications with customers.
We have so far covered the best practices for B2B customer experience management. If you’re looking for more guides on B2B marketing strategies, check out our guide to the best growth marketing strategies for B2B.
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