“You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology, not the other way around.” – Steve Jobs
After several decades of adopting traditional marketing practices involving mailers, events and activations, the B2B marketing game is undergoing a sea change with the proliferation of social media.
The relationships between B2B brands and their customers are being looked through a new perspective now, which marks the onset of this change.
As you are well aware, whether it is B2B or a B2C, your customer is your hero. Research says:
75% of business buyers seek personalized offers from the sellers 65% of them would not mind finding a new vendor, if not received a personalized communication.
As we all know B2B lead generation is a difficult task. Even if you have solid leads, persuading business buyers
to opt for your product and services could be challenging as there could be several factors influencing their decisions.
In short, you need to focus on:
- Usage of the product
- Highlight features of the product that can benefit businesses save time and money
- Engagement with your brand
- Proving the ROI
Personalized Support – Your Main Focus
It's a no-brainer that indifference towards your customers could be detrimental to your business interests. According to B2B research, 68% of customers leave a brand because of perceived apathy and not because of the mistakes.
A good customer support makes your customer feel valued, which ultimately reflects in your customer retention and business growth figures. There are several ways by which you can significantly boost customer retention, e.g. – a live chat as a support tool. This connects you to your customers in real-time and reduces the response time, hence holding them tight to your brand.
The American Marketing Association found that customers are 3 times more likely to convert when they’ve used live chat, taking the ROI as high as 305%.
Predict Behavior & Gather Feedback
Predictive analytics is what your business needs to create better customer experiences. This would generate 2 times more customer lifetime value, as the information it provides, helps you meet customers’ needs better.
Gathering feedback is another important step. This should be part of your integrated marketing plan, as several social media platforms, email marketing, websites, etc. can be greatly utilized to gather feedback and data.
Here are some ways in which you can collect feedback:
- Online comment boxes
- Live chatbot
- Online surveys
- Exit polls when a user leaves your web store
- Feedback forms
Keep a Track of Engagement Data & Automation
Keeping track of the engagement data is very crucial for marketers. Your app or content might be downloaded for many reasons. For instance, your customer can hire someone new, who will consume your content or avail your service differently. Ensuring a great service to him will ensure customer retention for a long period. What's more, if you monitor your customers’ engagement with your brand, you may find a great opportunity for account expansion and generate more revenues.
Having the data is not enough, you need to explore the reason why consumers are exhibiting a set of behaviours. Marketing automation could play a crucial role in enabling you to do this. A unified view of activities happening on an account helps here, which gives visibility into interactions of consumers across channels. Some platforms allow the revenue teams to view the account activities, interactions and initiatives.
Keep Proper Call to Actions
A great website is necessary, but what’s more imperative is to have a clear Call to Action. These days, more than 70% of startups do not have a good call to action, and if you too are making the same mistake, it’s time to mend it.
Just a ‘Call Us’ button is not enough. Businesses need well-crafted CTAs, which compel users to take actions on the website like downloading a report, opt fora free trial and request for more information. This will go a long way in enhancing the customer experience.
The findings of a study show that 66% of B2B consumers like to spend more for better customer service. Thus, more than the size of the brand, customer experience is very soon going to be the strongest differentiator, even in the B2B space.
Planning to enhance B2B customer experience by understanding your customers’ needs better? Click here to get in touch with our experts today!
