The Future of B2B Customer Experience
What are companies today without their customers? And what are B2B companies without their clients, companies or organizations that have in turn their own customers?
Are there any present trends or tendencies that we need to consider in building our relationship with companies that are driven to reach financial success, while keeping an open eye on delivering the latest customer care experience?
As technological innovation continues to influence commercial decisions and customers’ choices, large and small companies need to reconsider their position in the market and take actions to keep up with change.
However, how can we maintain our focus by responding to our customers’ needs and adapt our future actions according to their changing expectations?
Though it may appear there exists an obvious distance and a series of differences between B2C and B2B business operations, we should notice that some companies – like call center companies – have to deal with both the large corporations that require their services and with the customers of those organizations.
Which are the main factors that need to be considered by any company that enters into a business relationship with another company? What are the main elements call center companies need to consider in order to provide a great B2B customer experience?
Here are the 5 tendencies that influence the future of B2B customer experience:
5 Trends that Affect the Future of B2B Customer Experience
1. Customized business relationships
Every business relationship, especially one between a client service center and one of its client companies, has to be based on a customized approach. A one-size-fits-all strategy is no longer an acceptable method in dealing with companies that come from various areas and industries.
This selective approach is necessary also for training sessions later on with the customer care representatives or the technical support teams that “speak” for that company into the market and have to deal daily with its customers.
So, it is important to treat every company in a particular way, understand its needs and its vision of the industry and be able to come up with a clear and predictable plan in order to respond to its customers’ demands.
2. Dedicated customer care teams
As we were mentioning in the previous point, it is necessary to have a customized business relation with your major client companies. Understanding who they are, where they come from and how they consider their products are mandatory actions that need to be addressed in order to organize and build dedicated customer care teams.
When we talk about dedicated teams for a certain client, we envision people that have a set of technical skills, communication abilities and years of experience behind. Employing the right people into our company has always been a major plus for Blue Point and we have always went to great lengths to make sure great people remain next to us.
According to the latest studies in the industry, reputable companies that understand how vital a great customer experience is for its clients are ready to pay more for a service that delivers an enhanced customer experience.
How do we do this? How do we find the best teams that can offer a unique service into the market?
Well, to keep it simple, we train them to be better and be able to solve various technical issues that may occur along the way. Though the industry may change and the customers’ demands vary from business to business, we know that, at the end of the day, people have similar needs and we should be there for them.
3. Client service companies must meet customer expectations
We know present customer expectations change fast and we are well aware that call center companies and customer care departments need to be quick in keeping up with the constant change.
Talking about change, we have to be ready not only for a great number of differences between businesses in the market, but for ongoing trends like the digital rise, the demand for cross-platform solutions and the need for innovation.
In addition, we are aware that existing customers are informed individuals that know not only what they are buying, but are ready to deal with customer care representatives and defend their rights.
At the same time, all players involved understand that a good post-sale experience is an important element in every business relationship and maintaining an open dialogue is often the obvious path to success.
How do we stay close to our clients? How do we keep an open line?
For instance, we know that every business relationship and every service provided is usually set for a limited period of time, but how are we going to continue with our clients in the future? Did we make sure to keep a responsive approach to their needs? And are we at least ready to offer an improved deal at the end of the road?
4. Technology and digital data improve B2B interaction
B2B companies start to recognize the growing influence of technological advances and the way digital data is employed in forming the final image of a company’s profile.
Altogether, we recognize the present trend of using digital information in creating our customers’ identities so that we may know how to address their needs and their requirements.
Therefore, we are under constant pressure to discover and implement new ways and methods to use the large amount of data and transform it into a real element that we can use in our work, starting with large companies and ending with the final customer in the market.
By employing technology information and a set of data, companies are able to acquire and analyze their customers’ decision making stages. They can use statistics and different analytics to create a customer journey map and understand where a company can intervene along the way.
What about B2B customer expectations? How do we make sure the digital world improves the way companies interact?
First of all, the B2B interaction consists of various offerings and a number of services that connect teams from both companies, therefore we do not have a single point of contact and a single experience. The B2B customer expectations become professional journeys that cover long periods of time and many times involve technical and marketing departments.
This multi-point interaction between companies is fragmented and involves many teams and individuals resulting in different set of experiences.
For instance, as a service client company we comprehend that we need to find the best way to connect not only with the companies that are interested in our services and their customers, but with additional teams and departments that are influenced by our activities, such as their marketing departments.
5. B2B customer care relationships influence marketing strategies
Can a great customer care relationship influence the brand image of a company or the way it conducts its marketing strategy?
As a client service company, we believe that we represent the voice of our clients into the market since we maintain an open line of communication with its customers. And the way we approach customers does indeed matter for our clients’ image.
Can we say that our activity is directly connected to our clients’ marketing efforts?
Though it varies from case to case, there are a number of clients that run marketing campaigns with our help and include our infrastructure into their campaigns to reach the customer.
At the same time, since we keep a constant connection with both our clients and their customers, we are many times placed in the middle of this communication exchange and we are in the best position to observe and fill the gaps that occur from time to time.
Due to this continuous communication thread between clients and customers, we are thrilled to notice that our experience and our teams’ abilities increase and can be used successfully in other marketing campaigns as well.
How do we improve B2B communication?
According to the latest analyses in the service industry, it has become obvious that providing the best customer experience is now a key factor in the relationship between companies, reaching the same level of importance as the product quality and price.
As a result of this business fact, call center companies are always working to maintain a high level of customer experience, while making sure their services reflect the positive reputation of the companies they represent.
How do you keep your business going forward while complying with your clients’ demands?
Blue Point is a call center company offering customized solutions for outbound (telesales, telemarketing, surveys, etc.) and inbound (customer support, helpdesk info line and technical support, loyalty programs, cross sell upsell & inbound) services. The most popular clients assisted by our company are ING Bank, Metropolitan Life, Heineken, Hochland, Reader’s Digest, Ţiriac Auto, Vodafone and Xerox.
