B2B firms have realized that the organizations they’re
selling to consist of real people – people who, perhaps, love cooking Indian
food, enjoy cycling, like taking the dog for a walk and watching their children
play football at the weekends. The more B2B organizations get to know their
clients at a personal level, the better the relationship becomes and the
greater the customer experience. With 80% of respondents in a Salesforce
study saying their experiences are as important as a company’s products
and services, organizations must rethink the B2B customer experience if they
are to continue to meet clients’ expectations in a relevant, thoughtful way.
At Pitney Bowes, the commitment to delivering a great
customer experience is our North Star, guiding everything we do, but we’re
still learning. Over the past year, we’ve adapted the service and the
experience we deliver to our clients, to help meet their evolving needs. Here’s
how we see the customer experience going forward:
1. Your clients will expect deeper levels of
personalization
Just as we expect consumer brands to ‘know’ us and our
preferences, the same is true with the B2B customer experience. B2B
decision-makers want humanizing, personalized, helpful, and relevant
experiences to reduce complexity and save them time. They want businesses to
anticipate their requirements beyond the ‘You liked that, now try this’
algorithm. Achieving this isn’t a Holy Grail of customer experience: it’s about
building relationships, enhanced by data, tools, and automation, combined with
intelligence gathered from every interaction.
2. Self-service will remain popular
The ability to problem-solve quickly and efficiently
using digital tools is a preference we’ve experienced within our own clients
over the past year. We’ve seen a growing number of clients using our web
self-service tools. Even with complex B2B products and services, the option to
self-serve plays a key role in delivering a great B2B customer experience. The
Salesforce study found 65% would prefer to help themselves through self-service
for simple issues. But self-serve won’t just be for issues resolution: McKinsey found
that 97% of B2B buyers claim they will make a purchase in an end-to-end,
digital self-serve model, with the vast majority very comfortable spending $50K
or more online.
3. Engagement through social channels will be high
The LinkedIn State of Sales Report 2020 reported that 75%
of B2B buyers are significantly influenced by social media and 84% of senior
executives use social media to support purchase decisions. LinkedIn has
reported record levels of engagement over the past year. Not only are social
channels ideal for informing and engaging but crucially, they’re perfect for listening,
delivering insight that can drive deeper levels of personalization within the
customer experience.
4. Clients will continue to value virtual face-to-face
interactions for meetings
While virtual meetings are no replacement for a meeting
‘in person, they’re close. Less formal than a face-to-face meeting in a
traditional workplace environment, they can accelerate professional
relationships and help to quickly build trust. Generally, it’s quicker to get a
group of decision-makers together virtually than in person, and any questions
or concerns can be addressed promptly. The McKinsey study found that 90% of B2B
decision-makers expect the remote and digital model to remain. Three in four
believe the new model is as effective or more so than before COVID-19. As
we move forward, the B2B customer experience will comprise a hybrid of
face-to-face and remote interactions.
5. Large events and summits will be augmented with
digital events and personalized digital demos
When Mobile World Congress was postponed in February 2020
in the early stages of the pandemic, it represented a turning point as live
annual events moved online. In-person B2B events are invaluable for brand
presence, for networking, and product demos, and we look forward to them
returning. However, for the near future, we see digital events and smaller
in-person sessions augmented with client conversations tightly focused on
solving specific business challenges. These conversations will be supplemented
with personalized virtual product demos which help clients visualize how they
will use products and services within their own businesses.
6. Zero-touch will remain an important part of the B2B
customer experience
We’ve all experienced new contactless processes in our
personal lives –virtual GP consultations and digital forms completed during
trips to the dentist and optician, for example. Many of these processes are
highly efficient and will permanently replace manual processes, and the same is
true for businesses. We’re likely to see more contactless processes emerging –
contactless employee and visitor sign-in, for example, as well as booking of
workspaces and meeting rooms. Contactless issue resolution will become an
increasing part of the B2B customer experience. Businesses will use real-time data
and analytics to make life easier for clients, to identify issues, and solve
them remotely before the customer’s business is impacted. For example, our
clients use a service called Auto Ink which comes with some of our products –
it means that we’re alerted when clients’ ink supplies are running low in their
meters, and we can ship ink to them before their business is impacted.
7. Clients will expect emotional intelligence
Every individual has experienced the pandemic in a
different way, and it has become more important than ever to communicate and
interact with sensitivity and empathy. 68% of businesses in the Salesforce
survey expect brands to demonstrate empathy, but only 37% are experiencing
this, while two-fifths of B2B marketers have adapted content or
creative materials to become more emotional. Emotional intelligence has become
one of the most critical skills during the past year and will continue to be a
valued and influential part of the B2B customer experience.
Just as our personal buying experiences influence where
we choose to shop, the B2B customer experience has become highly influential in
buying decisions. 56% of B2B buyers have said they would actually pay
more for a better customer experience. Conversely, they wouldn’t buy from the
same business again if their experience was below expectations. While none of
us knows what our newly emerging, post-pandemic world really looks like,
it’s down to all B2B organizations to act responsively, to respond quickly, to
add real value, and to make every engagement matter.
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