Delivering a winning customer experience is not easy. A lot of time and effort needs to go into designing and implementing a program that sits at the very heart of an organisation and informs every action that is taken. The rewards of getting such a program right however are vast and worth every second.
To help ensure success, we’ve outlined 3 of the biggest things to remember when designing and implementing a CX strategy:
1. Customer expectations are constantly evolving
Customers are becoming more and more demanding and expectations are forever increasing. This means companies are often falling into the trap of delivering the same experience time after time with satisfaction levels dropping. Over time, the factors that once wowed a customer become the norm. So, b2b companies need to constantly innovate (in both their product and service delivery) in order to accommodate shifting expectations and stay competitive in the market.
2. Employees are the key to CX success
A customer-centric culture is essential if you are to deliver exceptional customer experience. A famous Richard Branson quote demonstrates this perfectly – “If you look after your employees, your employees will look after your customers”. Getting the right people into the right roles is vital and places a huge amount of importance on the recruitment, training and development strategy.
3. Emotions play a bigger part in b2b than in b2c
A common myth amongst marketers is that emotions do not play a big role in b2b decision making, and great customer experiences ultimately come down to meeting rational customer needs. In fact, there is more emotional attachment to b2b brands than to their b2c counterparts. This is because there is often more at stake when making b2b decisions. This is where the well-known axiom that “nobody ever got fired for buying IBM” comes from. B2b decisions involve much higher value purchases and have a direct impact on strategically important business operations. This means employees are much more accountable for their b2b decisions than b2c decisions. Use this to your own advantage – your customers have a lot riding on their relationship with you.