Digital transactions surged significantly in 2020, setting the tone for flourishing times for the eCommerce sector. The trend is expected to continue as consumers stay away from brick-and-mortar stores and embrace online shopping. Because of the coronavirus-driven shift to online and digital transactions, Paypal is expecting an additional 50 million active users in 2021 with annual revenue of about $25.5 billion.
While it is a known fact that better customer experience translates into increased revenue, now is the time for businesses to pivot their customer experience (CX) to meet the demands of mobile-friendly, omnichannel experiences and ensure a cohesive CX. It’s time businesses invest in digital CX programs while leveraging automation to stay connected with their customers and build brand loyalty.
The Gartner Hype Cycle for Customer Service and Support Technologies 2020 iterates the role of technologies in supporting customers and the business value they bring to the table.
Explains Drew Kraus, VP Analyst, Gartner, “Organizations’ customer experience priorities have changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, this year’s Hype Cycle encourages service and support leaders to approach the broad range of service and support technologies as an integrated ecosystem of functionality. Then they can better analyze investments that will provide a consistent, effortless, intelligent, and personalized customer service experience to meet their CX goals.”
Delivering a great B2B customer experience is now mandatory, though it can be quite a cakewalk if you know what your customers want from you.
Here’s what they expect from you.
You must understand that they are used to agility and convenience because of their B2C transactions and expect the same during their B2B dealings too. Savings, efficiency, and satisfaction are touted as the top 3 performance indicators now, while automation is expected to increase impact and boost sales productivity by a whopping 14.5%.
Ask your customers and they will be quick to tell you they want. Speed, ease, consistency, relevancy, transparency, and that personal touch to know that they truly matter to you.
We, therefore, urge you to focus on the following areas to optimize your customer experience and leave your customers wanting for more.
Read on.
1. Now or never, because timing is everything
Considering that time is their greatest resource, it’s important that you provide instant responses, real-time updates, instant or same-day delivery, etc. to ensure that they are close to all they need.
Statistics reveal that 73 percent of B2B buyers comprise Millennials, which also means they expect everything at lightning speed. They get impatient and hate to wait on sites that are not mobile-responsive or not quick to load. Responsiveness is the key here and a B2B business that’s quick to address issues before customers feel the pain will always have an edge over others.
Look at what Bell Canada did when customers continued to call them for usage instructions for a particular feature? They simply offered a quick tutorial on the phone telling them how to use the feature, ensuring customer satisfaction, fewer call-backs, and a 6% reduction in customer churn.
You may improve on the speed factor by offering 24/7 self-service so that they have greater control over their shopping experience right from browsing to purchase and beyond. They should be able to access product information, inventory availability, delivery details, payment options, order tracking, etc. This will also give your sales teams a breather to focus on other ways to improve CX.
Also, make sure that you sync your tech stack to speed up the customer journey from purchasing and delivery to invoicing and returns. A B2B eCommerce platform that leverages modern technologies would be perfect to stay a step ahead of competitors.
2. The customer journey should be simple
Remove friction or hiccups to make the customer experience engaging and enjoyable. Help them discover products quickly and keep the order process simple. Optimize the design of your site in a way that they can find things easily and ensure that the product recommendations made to them are relevant.
Technology will play a huge part here. You can use voice commerce to help customers enjoy hands-free shopping, leverage AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) to help customers try out or experience products virtually.
A Capgemini survey suggests 52% of respondents would use the services of a voice assistant while shopping for electronics. Voice search is helping customers find products and multitask while voice-based shopping is expected to touch US$40 billion in 2022.
3. Good CX is about consistency at every touch point
A strong omnichannel experience that promises consistency despite the complexities of the buying journey is critical for good CX. Especially when multiple channels are being used for a single purchase, it is important that you deliver the same message irrespective of whether you connect with your customers using phone, email, or web store.
As a B2B eCommerce business owner, you must adapt to the changing preferences of customers whether it’s because of growing needs or behaviors. The key to delivering a seamless omnichannel experience however, is data.
You must therefore have actionable, data-driven insights to create the perfect omnichannel experience for your customers. The right e-commerce platform can help scale your business significantly by improving efficiencies and helping you reach, connect, and keep new customers.
4. Relevancy through personalization will help improve customer engagement
Unless you step into their shoes, you will never know what they want. Map their journeys to understand what they want and why. You need to personalize their buying experience so that your interactions with them are relevant at all times. Understand what drives them — savings, customization, personalized shipping options, or something else? Another good example of personalization is real-time product recommendations. Such form of data-driven personalization can help make quick buying decisions.
AI and machine learning models can help analyze data to make recommendations based on the needs of customers. Rather than making them go through exhaustive product catalogs, you can create customized ones or match solutions based on what they have been looking for.
5. Price transparency ensures brand loyalty and trust
Your customers would always want to ensure that they are paying the right price for everything they buy. Today, buyers have very clear price parameters for a particular product. Provide exact prices to customers by leveraging technologies that help determine how much they will pay.
The price you quote should be consistent irrespective of whether it’s an online purchase or an in-person one. This kind of price transparency will ease the decision-making process while building trust along the way. Also, make sure that you provide customers access to inventory levels, order statuses, and other relevant information in real-time.
6. Personal touch wins even in the digital world
All your efforts may mean nothing if you cannot add that personal touch. The ones buying are humans and prone to emotions despite the virtual nature of the B2B eCommerce business. The good thing is that it’s really simple. All your customers want is to know that they truly matter to you. Care and communication are the pillars on which stellar customer experience rests on.
A proactive call or message to share something that could benefit your customers would be more than welcome. A personalized greeting when they step into your web store or a small gift to congratulate them on hitting an important milestone can put a smile on their face.
Customer loyalty programs are runaway hits that can miraculously increase your revenue, too. Starbucks, for instance, sends cute, personalized messages to customers on their birthdays to walk that extra mile. A referral program that allows your customers to earn points, place group orders, or earn rewards every time their colleagues or associates purchase through your web store is always a win-win and can work wonders.
The HP Planet Partners Rewards Program that rewards businesses that return used original HP print cartridges to support its recycling initiative is not only winning hearts but helping companies minimize their impact on the environment. These are small initiatives, but their impact is too big to ignore.
Win with ewiz commerce – an AI-Powered, B2B eCommerce Platform
It’s easy to curate the best customer experience for your customers and win big if you have a partner like ewiz commerce that will help you with the right tech, services and integrations to identify opportunities, fix communication gaps, and improve value.
Our customer-centric approach powered by our AI-driven tech will empower you to build customer loyalty, reduce churn rate, get more referrals, and increase sales. A suite of solutions powered by over 100 features can just be the beginning of your B2B eCommerce journey, we’d say. Call us to know more. Today.
