According to McKinsey, B2B organisations lag behind B2C when it comes to creating a personalised and memorable customer experience. A Walker study added to the urgency for B2B organisations to put their thinking caps on by suggesting that by 2020, customer experience will be the number one brand differentiator. So, while B2B has focused on enhancing the customer experience during the buyer's journey, they now need to recognise that an exceptional experience, like loyalty building, begins long before a customer's data is entered into the CRM. 

Defining The B2B Customer Experience

To understand the customer experience , you must first define it. In layman's terms, the customer experience is the impression that an organisation leaves with their customer. The impression determines how the customer will think about your brand, and it has a rippling impact throughout the entire customer journey. In fact, customer experience and brand are intrinsically linked.  

Brand And Customer Experience Are Intrinsically Linked

Customer experience is influenced by every interaction: digital engagement, purchase, product use and customer service. B2B organisations need to be careful that they don't differentiate between what they sell and how they sell it. Instead, branding and marketing become an intrinsic part of the organisation's service offerings and in doing so becomes a part of the greater customer experience. Valuable content, social context, social proof, and engaging interactions can all be used to enhance the customer experience, for the entire client team, to elevate their value and achieve the following goals: 

• Increased margin.

• Increased frequency of purchase.

• Increased repeat purchases.

• Increased cross-selling opportunities

• Increased recommendations.

Achieving the above goals is not only proof that you have created a positive customer experience, but it is also proof that your brand has inherently become one with your customer experience. 

Building A Foundation Of Customer Experience And Customer Loyalty 

The journey towards exceptional customer experience requires an understanding of where you currently are. Data must be gathered and analysed to create the foundation needed for improved levels of customer loyalty. Like discovering the best commute from your home to the office, measuring the customer experience requires a bit of fine-tuning to get the journey just so, as well as the understanding that a customer-first strategy is the way of the future. 

In this vein, one step businesses should take is to identify the rate and reasons for customer churn. It's no secret that churn is a part of business. However, instead of being mystified by churn, you can learn why it happens, so that you can prevent it in the future. Additionally, data should be tracked throughout the entire year so that you can more effectively analyse if your process improvement measures are working. 

Another source of data is customer support ticket trends. Support tickets provide vital insights into the areas that trouble your existing customers and potential prospects. You can think of these as unnecessary speed bumps in your customer's experience. Instead of forcing your customers to go over the bumps, you can instead devise solutions that clear the path and in doing so spend time investing in what your customers actually want and need.

Finally, if you want to maximise the full impact of your investment in the customer experience, then you should complete the following steps. 

1. Build a customer journey map.

2. Write buyer personas that promote audience segmentation, so that you can more effectively deliver the personalisation required for successful customer experiences.

3. Create communities for your audience.

4. Understand that customer loyalty is the glue that solidifies a brilliant customer experience.

By completing the above steps, you will strengthen sales and marketing efforts as you turn your attention to customer loyalty. After all, you can only achieve the optimal results when you understand where you have come from and where you want to go. When you understand how customer experience is inherently linked to sales, branding, and customer loyalty, you can gain the knowledge needed to produce the most effective and efficient route to success. 

Organisational Commitment Supports The Customer Experience Journey

The customer experience journey is an ongoing process that requires organisational commitment. This commitment must spread throughout the entire B2B organisation. It also requires a strategic approach to customer loyalty. If you deliver an exceptional experience that is both easy and enjoyable, then your customers will come back to purchase your products and services again. If your services are fantastic, then your customers will be interested in discovering what else you can do for them. Armed with the latter knowledge, they will refer your organisation to their network, and in doing so start to amplify your customer loyalty levels. 

To further build customer loyalty, B2B organisations can use a multichannel approach to further solidify the bond between your brand and customers. This bond is one-part marketing and branding, one-part customer experience, and one-part customer loyalty. To achieve the perfect balance, B2B organisations need to continue to invest in what the customer wants and needs. The good news is that you can seamlessly integrate personalised experiences across customer touchpoints, while simultaneously targeting customers before they have entered the sales funnel. The latter approach not only embraces the concept that customer experience and loyalty begin during a prospect's research phase, but it also delivers a 25 percent more profitable sales result. 

Customer Experience Is Tied To Customer Loyalty. Together They Are The Next Evolution Of The Brand

Where once marketers said "brand," they now say, "customer experience." As this post has shown, the customer experience is becoming more and more a part of the value that brands create. Focusing on experience is the how branding is evolving, which is why B2B organisations need to remember that customer loyalty is a key component of the customer's experience. Establishing, maintaining, and building valuable B2B customer relationships that promote increased levels of loyalty will require organisations to implement the following strategic approaches. 

1. Provide valuable content. — Customers are not interested in consuming mundane content. They want to be presented with information that answers their questions and makes their life better in some way. Whether it is on social media or a blog, your leadership content should nurture your customer relationships so that they think of your brand as a valuable and trusted resource. Remember that your branding is a key component of the customer's experience, which is why your content should not differentiate between what you sell and how you sell it. Instead, by developing an intimate and deep understanding of your customers, you can make strategic content decisions that reflect your newly found insights. In return, customers will positively respond to your content by increasing purchase frequency and recommendations.

2. Leverage the power of progressive profiling. — Progressive profiling is a brilliant way to gather additional insights about a customer. A form with dynamic fields enabled can be used to respond on the fly to repeat visitors and collect previously unknown data to deepen your knowledge of the prospect without overwhelming them. These intuitive forms add a layer of personalisation that, when coupled with dynamic content, gives customers the answers that they crave on their journey towards a final purchase. By understanding your customers, you can create specific journeys that are perfectly mapped to their wants, needs, and goals. With the right tools and professional insights, your buyer personas and customer journey map will become a precise outline that avoids any accidental u-turns.

3. Interact with your customers. — Like valuable content and progressive profiling, creating a positive customer experience that results in a loyal brand ambassador relies on your ability to successfully interact with your customers. These interactions, whether in the moment on social or as part of a planned campaign, can and should include something as simple as "thank you" messages. In fact, basic human psychology teaches us that recognition is one of the main reasons someone remains loyal. When it comes to your B2B customers, thanking them for their business is a good way to recognise their support while simultaneously increasing the number of meaningful interactions. Another way to positively interact with your customers is by showing the value of your products through explainer videos. These videos, coupled with customer testimonials, will create the foundation that you need to support the customer experience journey while simultaneously increasing loyalty. In short, the more customers feel appreciated and the easier it is for them to understand your products, and the more likely they are to recommend your organisation to their network.

4. Use social proof to your marketing advantage. — We might sound cynical by saying this, but the truth is that people are like lemmings. The wisdom of crowds states that if other people are behaving a certain way, then the proof suggests that it is most likely the correct behaviour. Positive reviews, customer testimonials, endorsements, awards, and recognitions are all examples of social proof that others have trusted your company in the past and had a good experience and demonstrates to your prospects that they should too. Just as Instagram casually alerts you when someone likes a photo and encourages you to follow the person in return, so too can you subtly use social proof to your advantage. In fact, your landing pages, product pages, blog posts, and social media posts, should all use social proof marketing to increase conversions.

The Bottom Line: Customer Experience And Customer Loyalty Go Hand-in-Hand

B2B organisations should no longer separate customer experience and customer loyalty as two siloed entities. Instead, like two peas in a pod, customer experience and customer loyalty go hand-in-hand. By measuring customer experience, providing valuable content via an omnichannel marketing approach, interacting with customers, and using social proof to your marketing advantage, you can successfully increase customer loyalty. To discover how your organisation can create meaningful and personalised journeys that increase conversions and sales, contact a member of the 1827 Marketing team today.