Six Ways to Deliver A Better B2B Customer Experience

Customer expectations are rising, which means that companies should offer a better B2B customer experience. B2B companies have been facing rising customer expectations for some time, but COVID has accelerated the trend.

Among other changes caused by the ongoing COVD-19 pandemic, B2B companies are accelerating their adoption of new technology. Historically, B2B companies have been slower than B2C firms to adopt new technologies and processes. Many B2B firms operated in an environment where personal relationships, face-to-face meetings, and large industry events were a crucial part of the selling process.

COVID-19 has changed all that. With many areas remaining under or reintroducing new lockdown orders and severely restricted travel, B2B companies are finding new ways to connect and compete in a changing marketplace. Video calls, webinars, and virtual events have become commonplace.

The transformation extends beyond the adoption if new technological tools. It has also accelerated the adoption of new processes and new approaches, new ways of thinking about how to connect with partners, customers, and prospects. The pandemic is changing the way that people engage with one another across the value chain.

These changes are unlikely to go away once the pandemic ends. For B2B businesses, this situation presents new challenges and opportunities. In many ways, changes in consumer behavior due to the pandemic are an acceleration of tends that already existed.

B2B sales operations going forward are likely to look very different than past B2B sales operations. McKinsey predicts that, going forward, B2B companies will see digital interactions as two to three times more important than traditional sales interactions. In addition, almost 90% of sales have moved to a videoconferencing/phone/web sales model, and more than half of business leaders felt that this model is equally or more effective than sales models used before the pandemic.

These new sales models include:

• Increased Reliance on eCommerce

• Increased Use of Virtual Meetings and Events

• Increased Demand for Digital Self-Service Tools

• Increased Use of Omnichannel Selling

Provide Self-Service Tools for Your Customers

Business leaders included in the McKinsey report identified live chat as the top channel for researching B2B suppliers. They also reported a 30% increase in B2B customer preference for placing orders via mobile apps. McKinsey noted a 250% increase in B2B orders placed through mobile apps.

How Can B2B Companies Adapt?

There are six main ways B2B sellers should adapt to the changing business environment.

1. Focus on Delivering Speed, Transparency, and Value – Research continues to show that B2B customers place the most importance on speed, transparency, and value. B2B companies should focus fulfilling customer demand for these attributes through all of their sales channels.

2. Optimize Your eCommerce Channels – Companies should integrate all of their sales channels, and optimize the eCommerce experience to provide an easy and convenient buying experience for customers.

3. Fix Top Customer Website Frustrations – Delivering an excellent eCommerce experience involves fixing top customer frustrations with placing online orders: a long ordering process, difficulty in locating products, and technical issues with the website.

4. Provide the Human Touch – Offer your customers the comfort of the human touch whenever they need it across both inside sales and field sales.

5. Deploy Digital-Enablement Experts – Have a team of digital-enablement experts to help customers use new self-service sales tools and to help sales reps migrate their buyers to these tools.

6. Remap Your Customer Journey – Map your customer journey to include new processes and tools adopted due to COVID, and continue to streamline and improve the customer experience moving forward.

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