Creative ways to enhance b2b customer experience management
As 2022 has just started, there’s no reason you do not draw on it a positive note by taking some steps to put in place an improved B2B customer experience management plan across your business. Be human It’s time to get emotional. Business people are people too. Just because you’re selling a B2B product or service to a company, there’s still a real person making the decision to buy. So use emotion, not just rational facts and figures, in your communications to customers. The New Zealand B-to-B Marketing Report 2020 found that telling more emotional and human stories can cut through the sea of sameness in B-to-B marketing and get your brand noticed and remembered. Streamline buyers’ online journey As customers migrate online during the pandemic, you need your online buying experience to be seamless. Today’s business buyers have more choices than ever before and now expect expertise, speed, transparency, and convenience. Customers should know exactly what you want them to do next. For example, “Sign up now for a free trial” leaves no doubt in the buyer’s mind what their next step is. Use links and buttons to display your call to action so that customers can easily proceed to the next step of the journey. Not only should you be clear about what you want the user to do next, but you should make it as easy as possible for them to move through their buying journey. This Mckinsey case study shows how you can build a customer-focused B2B business. Get personal There’s more to personalization than simply adding a customer’s name on an email. As mentioned earlier, it’s important to understand that your customers are people with emotions. A recent Salesforce survey showed that 84% of customers say being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business. Personalization helps to humanize your marketing and create stronger, deeper relationships with your customers. Omnichannel experience Customers are increasingly using online channels, both to research and buy. B-to-B buyers now expect high levels of service and personalization (there’s that word again) throughout the customer journey. What is an omnichannel experience? Put simply, an omnichannel experience is when your customers engage with your business across multiple channels online or off, on your website or social media, by mobile device or laptop, they enjoy the same great customer experience, same messaging, and the same ease of use. What you want to achieve is a consistently great customer experience across all your different channels. Here’s an article from CustomerGauge with tips on how to create your omnichannel experience and find out more. Create and repurpose sales tools Sales … Yes, we didn’t forget about salespeople and the vital role they play in your customer’s experience. With in-person sales meetings decreasing, you need to be creating or repurposing sales enablement tools that work over video conferencing apps. These should be designed differently from your traditional presentations. Make them shorter (people’s attention span via video is less than in-person) Incorporate other media (such as short videos, self-assessments, and polls) Add interactive content Use content that can be clearly read on a mobile or tablet. Avoid your pitch feeling like a lecture by mixing in your different content on screen. Conclusion Above are some creative ways to enhance B2B customer experience management. Check them out right today and if you still have any problems or concerns, then comment down below and we will help you to find the answer.
Guide to Optimize B2B Account Management on BigCommerce
Managing B2B accounts doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right tools, like BigCommerce, businesses can streamline their processes and give clients a smooth experience. In this guide, we’ll break down how to optimize your B2B account management, using BigCommerce’s handy features to make everything run more smoothly. Introduction to B2B Account Management on BigCommerce Regarding B2B account management, BigCommerce helps businesses organize customer relationships and transactions. It’s all about handling big orders, custom pricing, and managing multiple buyers. BigCommerce allows you to simplify these tasks while keeping things flexible and scalable. Whether you’re offering personalized pricing or integrating with existing systems, BigCommerce provides the tools you need to stay efficient. In fact, nearly 65% of B2B companies now offer eCommerce capabilities, a significant jump from 53% in early 2021. This shift shows how digital channels are becoming the primary route for B2B transactions, with eCommerce driving 18% of all revenue for B2B companies. Understanding the Unique Needs of B2B Businesses B2B businesses work differently from B2C businesses. They need tools to handle larger orders, multiple buyers, and custom pricing. So, what do these businesses really need? These are the challenges BigCommerce addresses with its tailored solutions for B2B businesses. Why BigCommerce is Ideal for B2B Account Management Why choose BigCommerce for B2B account management? It’s flexible, scalable, and user-friendly. It lets businesses manage their customers more effectively, providing tools to automate tasks and create a seamless buying process. Hybrid sales models are becoming increasingly common, with 64% of B2B leaders planning to increase hybrid seller roles in the next six months, reflecting BigCommerce’s ideal fit for evolving business needs. In short, BigCommerce offers everything you need to keep your business running smoothly as you scale. Key Features of BigCommerce for B2B Account Management BigCommerce offers plenty of features that make B2B account management easier. From managing multiple users to simplifying B2B bulk orders, the platform has a tool for every task. Multi-User Account Management and Permissions Managing multiple users within the same organization can be tricky. BigCommerce helps by allowing you to set permissions for different users, ensuring the right people have the right level of access. With these features, you can easily manage customer accounts while keeping everything organized and secure. Customer-Specific Pricing and Custom Catalogs Personalized pricing is a must in the B2B world. BigCommerce lets you create custom prices and catalogs for different clients, ensuring each customer gets a tailored shopping experience. This flexibility means your customers will always see the right price, making it easier to do business with you. Streamlining Bulk Orders and Quick Reordering B2B clients often need to place large orders or reorder the same products. BigCommerce simplifies this with features designed to make bulk ordering fast and easy. These features save time for both you and your customers, making it easier to manage large or repeated orders. Improving Customer Experience through B2B Account Optimization A smooth experience is just as important for B2B customers as it is for retail shoppers. BigCommerce has several features that can improve the customer experience and make managing accounts easier for both sides. Empowering Customers with Self-Service Portals Self-service portals let customers handle their own orders and account details, freeing up your team for other tasks. It also gives customers more control over their interactions with your business. This level of access helps customers feel more in control and makes it easier for them to do business with you. Personalized Pricing and Advanced Quoting Features Personalized pricing can make a big difference in customer satisfaction. BigCommerce offers tools to help you manage custom quotes and pricing without needing manual intervention. These tools make it easy to offer personalized pricing, which can improve customer loyalty and increase sales. Automating Account Approval and Role Management BigCommerce automates many of the administrative tasks that can take up time, making B2B account management faster and more efficient. These automation features reduce manual work, allowing your team to focus on building relationships with clients. Integrating BigCommerce with Enterprise Systems One of the best things about BigCommerce is how well it integrates with other systems. Whether you need ERP, CRM, or accounting tools, BigCommerce can connect everything for a more streamlined workflow. ERP and CRM Integration for Centralized Management Integrating with your ERP and CRM systems can make managing your business easier. BigCommerce allows you to sync your data across platforms, so you don’t have to manually update information. These integrations make it easy to keep everything organized, ensuring that your team always has access to the latest information. Payment Methods and Net Terms Customization Payment options for B2B customers are different from B2C. BigCommerce makes it easy to customize payment methods and offer terms that meet your clients’ needs. Offering flexible payment options makes it easier for businesses to manage their cash flow while ensuring timely payments from clients. Seamless Shipping Solutions for B2B Clients Shipping for B2B customers can be complex, especially when dealing with large or custom orders. BigCommerce offers several features that simplify the shipping process. These tools ensure that your clients receive their orders on time and without hassle, keeping them happy and coming back for more. Leveraging BigCommerce’s Analytics for Account Management Knowing how your customers behave and tracking purchase trends can give you valuable insights. BigCommerce’s analytics tools help you make informed decisions about your B2B account management strategy. Tracking Customer Behavior and Purchase Trends Understanding what your customers buy and how often they make purchases is key to optimizing your business. These insights can help you improve your services and offer better deals to your most valuable clients. Using Data to Improve Inventory Management Managing inventory can be tricky, but with the right data, you can make smarter decisions about stock levels and product availability. These tools ensure that you never run out of the products your customers want, keeping your clients happy and your business running smoothly. Optimizing Your BigCommerce B2B Store for Success A successful B2B account management strategy isn’t just
Solve the mystery: differentiate B2B vs B2C product management
We often hear that being a product manager for B2B products is an entirely different role from product management in a B2C environment. But that isn’t always the case. One of the most common myths about the difference between B2B vs B2C product management is that when you’re developing products for businesses, you have to always satisfy multiple personas across the organization; when designing for consumers, on the other hand, you need only to create a value proposition for a single, end-user persona. This isn’t always true. Here are a couple of other reasons we believe that being a product manager and designing products for any type of market — B2B, B2C, and even B2G — will, for the most part, require the same priorities, knowledge, and skills. Business Model A major distinction between B2C and B2B products is the business model. In B2C… revenue is generated from thousands of customers making millions of small transactions. Whether it be subscription, purchases, or micro-transactions, this is how the business makes money. Even a business with whales — where a small cohort of customers generates a majority of the product’s revenue — still needs to rely on creating a great experience for everyone (more on this in a moment) In B2B… revenue is generated from a small handful of large enterprise contracts. These can be 6+ figure annual contracts. Having significantly fewer customers completely changes the dynamics for product. The Sales Funnel In B2C, most companies will use marketing to generate as many impressions and initial conversions as possible, and it is up to Product & Design to funnel these new users down to paid conversions and keep them around. B2C Products can get thousands of hits a day, keeping the funnel fully stocked (and ideally growing) at all times. In B2B, large meaningful contracts take a long time to develop. People may impulsively buy a $20 T-Shirt online from a B2C store; no company is impulsively signing a $250K annual contract for BI software. The typical enterprise sales cycle is 6–12 months (and from my experience 6–8months is insanely fast). This means it is up to Sales to nurture these contracts and bring them to the finish line. Product plays a fundamental role in this process by providing (at a minimum): A Sales Deck with screenshots An internal-only sales enablement deck with more technical slides and pricing One pager and blog posts/whitepapers (if available) General advice and support for Salespeople on technical inner workings of product 1–3 year (tentative) Product Roadmap so they can evangelize a long-term relationship with customer Ride alongs to Enterprise sales calls somewhat mimics B2C ethnographic interviews, but from my experience Enterprise sales calls provide significantly more signal & insight into product needs than B2C calls; most likely because enterprise lacks the quantitative data a B2C sales funnel can create. Customer Problems At its core, Product Management is about solving Customer Problems. Good PMs can quickly figure out who they are building for and why. But for B2B, this becomes a little more complicated because Enterprise Users are typically not Enterprise Customers. For B2C products, like a mobile app, your users are also your customers, since the people playing the same on their phone (users) also bought the app themselves (customers). But B2B products, like BI software, would have employees who use it every day (users) and their boss who paid for it (customer). Their boss may never touch the software, they just need a product to help their team achieve their goals. Similar to B2C customers, B2B customers also require simple, flexible and fast processes. In that case, have a look at Grit Global. A Magento B2B platform that offers you multiple channels, flexibility in creating customizing catalogs, prices as well as Comprehensive Inventory Management Features. All kinds of features in one but still guarantee fast speed and simplicity. You will not have to worry and do tasks on your own with this genius invention. Conclusion In the end, the nuances of B2B vs B2C are trumped by the fundamental product management skills. If you are an exquisite interviewer, have strong feature prioritization skills, and deep industry and product knowledge, then the differences between the two markets will all but disappear. But it is still crucial to adapt your tried-and-true B2C framework to B2B, so as not to miss the points mentioned above.
