Embracing Change in B2B Transformation: From Chaos to Clarity
May 28, 2024 • 4 Minute Read • Mary Brown, Experience Strategy Lead, Commerce
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Modern CX Strategies for B2B Commerce
May 30, 2024 • 3 Minute Read • Thomas John, Commerce Practice Lead
I recently attended the Forrester B2B Summit in Austin, which was a game-changer for understanding the future of customer experience (CX) in B2B commerce. The summit illuminated key trends poised to redefine the landscape.
Let's unwrap the top five insights from speaking with analysts at the event.
1. Integrating GenAI to Elevate CX Standards
A standout theme at the summit was the acceleration of generative AI (GenAI) adoption in B2B operations. GenAI continues its momentum in altering customer service dynamics.
Gen-AI-driven assistance can help with product discovery, invoice resolution, and more. With numerous products and services and hundreds of orders being facilitated daily, it helps customers swiftly locate the solution they need at that moment.
By integrating GenAI into customer service frameworks, customer-facing teams can streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and elevate overall customer resolution metrics. Imagine the possibilities and how quickly your team can expedite interactions.
2. Addressing Industry-Specific Needs with Tailored Solutions
Among the broader B2B commerce landscape, tailored solutions for industry-specific needs are critical to CX excellence. In other words, it's about ensuring every feature and function is relevant and adds value across the customer's journey and operationally.
Addressing unique challenges and nuances requires customized solutions that are calibrated to your environment and situations, like fluctuating pricing, real-time inventory, personalized shopping experiences, or seamless online and offline integrations.
Begin by conducting a thorough analysis of your industry's specific pain points and customer needs so you can focus on enhancing the CX, improving customer satisfaction, building loyalty, and maintaining a competitive edge in the marketplace.
B2B commerce has diverse experiences and the intricacies within various industries are unique. Because of this, you should consider collaborating with a CX expert who understands your industry and how to incorporate advanced tech and data analytics.
3. Breaking Down Silos & Embracing Unified CX
Another significant trend is breaking down siloes. At the end of the day, your CX demands more than just individual department efforts. It requires a unified organizational approach to make an impact.
At the core of this organizational shift lies insights from diverse groups including marketing, sales, customer service, and product development. By synthesizing data from these teams, you can begin to understand customer preferences, pain points, and behaviors comprehensively.
Armed with this holistic view, you can customize products, services, and experiences across the buying cycle to be more consistent across channels and touchpoints. Achieving this level of integration requires a concerted effort and strategic focus. It's about buy-in across your organization and creating harmony that aligns with CX objectives.
Establish a digital-first mindset and drive ongoing communication, feedback loops, and collaborative initiatives. Once this digital foundation is laid, you can swiftly pivot towards driving transformative change. In addition to gathering internal insights, maintain a constant flow of customer intelligence and data to gain a holistic understanding and base your strategy on deep customer insights.
4. Harnessing Real-Time Personalization
There's an opportunity to embrace personalization and treat your buyers like the unique people they are. With more customers choosing, recommending, or paying more for brands that personalize experiences, implementing real-time personalization has the power to reshape B2B sales and marketing.
However, realizing this benefit hinges upon a robust backend technology infrastructure capable of seamlessly integrating and operationalizing customer insights across diverse touchpoints.
In short, businesses need to leverage customer data to create relevant CX journeys effectively.
To start down the path of data-driven personalization, consider a multifaceted approach that enables you to gather comprehensive stakeholder and customer data. Then, harness AI-driven analytics to unearth actionable trends.
5. Navigating the Omnichannel Imperative
B2B commerce is witnessing unprecedented channel diversification, with B2B buyers leveraging an expanding array of platforms to inform their purchasing decisions.
What does this behavior mean? An omnichannel strategy is indispensable.
Delivering consistent and seamless CX across touchpoints is more than merely expanding your channel repertoire. The true litmus test is in ensuring a uniform, high-caliber experience across every platform.
Given the exponential rise in channel usage among B2B decision-makers, a cohesive omnichannel strategy becomes increasingly non-negotiable, playing a pivotal role in driving sustained customer engagement and loyalty.
The Complex B2B Commerce Terrain
Businesses are increasingly needing to prioritize their CX strategy. From harnessing GenAI to aligning internally to embracing data-driven personalization, the roadmap to CX excellence is multifaceted and dynamic.
As a digital experience agency specializing in commerce and web experiences, we're a strategic partner for businesses navigating CX in 2024 and looking to the future. Your ability to innovate and pivot hinges on a digital-first mindset and foundation.
Learn how Verndale can help you create a sustainable digital strategy. Start by driving clarity internally and adopting the right technology so your organization can adapt to shifting CX landscapes and deliver better business outcomes. Get in touch with our team.