In the B2B environment, the customer experience plays just as important a role as we already know from B2C. As a customer, we value a fast and smooth buying process in which we feel well and personally advised. This inspires trust in us and contributes to a long-term business relationship. The difference between the customer experience in B2C and B2B, however, is that the customer journey - i.e. the customer's journey to purchase and after-sales service - is more complex and longer than in B2C.
1. Why is the Customer Experience important?
It is therefore all the more important that you know all the potential contact moments with your customers and optimally align your communication with their needs at these points. Because the sum of all experiences with your company ultimately decides whether leads become customers and customers remain loyal to you in the long term. Satisfied customers are ultimately the best advertisement for you as a competent partner. That is why the customer experience is considered a decisive factor for corporate success.
2. What can You Your Customer Experience improve?
With strategic customer experience management, you can perfect your customers' experience at the different touchpoints with your company. This requires defining and translating your brand message into customer experiences. You should also carry out an analysis of your touchpoints to uncover potential for optimisation and improve your customers' experience.
As if the challenge were not great enough, digitalisation is also a factor here. Digitalisation has changed information and purchasing behaviour dramatically. Today, potential customers have the opportunity to obtain information about products and services through various channels and to compare them with each other. Whether via Google, social media or industry portals, the possibilities are manifold. Therefore, it is particularly important that you offer an authentic and positive customer experience at all times at every available touchpoint - also on the web.
3. But how do you your customers now at all touchpoints satisfied?
Make sure that your customers find relevant and up-to-date content that addresses their needs at all touchpoints. At best, you can even surprise your customers and exceed their expectations.
Therefore, make sure that your content meets the following criteria:
- Communicate your expertise
- Show yourself in an authentic way
- Go for a strong visual appeal
- Pay attention to the recognition value
- Ensure a short response time
- Always communicate in a needs-oriented and personal way
- Deliver tailored and helpful offers and information
3. This tools should be you know
CX-Design
Customer experience design is about bringing the customer's touchpoints with your company to life and providing an optimal experience. Some approaches to CX design have already established themselves in B2B:
- The Buyer Persona is already a widely used tool to identify customer needs.
- The customer journey, in turn, helps to identify the touchpoints.
- Less well known is customer experience mapping. Here you visualise all the phases of the customer journey and identify suitable communication elements that you assign to the phases:
Now collect suitable communication elements from your marketing mix for each phase. Make sure that each phase has a different goal. Therefore, your communication elements must not only be attention-grabbing and designed in a uniform CD, but also accompany your customers into the next phase.
A few typical examples:
- Awareness: Google ad, ad banner, an involving company blog, a current whitepaper
- Consideration: elements on your website that appeal to the customer's target industry, informative and clear product brochures, user reports/customer references
- Decision: convincing and personalised
- Mailings
- Closing: Business equipment, giveaways, office templates, interior design.
Retention: newsletter, video tutorials, social media, - Customer events
- After sales: customer training, giveaways
- Advocacy: Events, Partner Programmes, Certifications
4. Conclusion: From the B2C sector can you a lot learn
The customer experience - as the sum of all customer experiences with your company - is an important success factor. The analysis of customer needs and touchpoints is already a proven discipline from B2C and is used by many companies in marketing.
Once your touchpoints have been defined on the basis of a customer journey and the customer needs have been analysed on the basis of a buyer persona, you are faced with the challenge of finding the appropriate communicative elements to accompany your customers from one phase of the customer lifecycle to the next. However, authentic and targeted communication at the various touchpoints requires coherent communication. Always align them with your brand core so that your messages run like a thread through all phases of the customer lifecycle.
Yvonne Willmer
At Blaupause , my main task is to structure and manage complex projects for industrial clients. From time to time, however, I also write blog articles and social media posts on B2B topics that are close to my heart. Have you already put some of our suggestions into practice? Then I would be happy if you tell me about your results.