In the B2B industry, you either have a stellar customer service department, or you’re out of the picture – simple as that. It might sound a bit harsh, but the reality is that the B2B market is a highly-competitive one, and customers want nothing less than amazing support and guidance form their favorite brands on a 24/basis.
Otherwise, they will quickly realize that you’re not paying enough attention to their needs and unique business requirements, and they will start shopping around for a better partner to work with – one that will invest more time and resources into their relationship.
To improve satisfaction, upsell your products, and drive new business to your doorstep, you have to focus on customer support and relationship management, and there’s a number of ways you can do that without breaking the bank. Today, we’ll be taking a look at five effective ways you can improve B2B customer support to boost success on numerous fronts.
Tend to diligent customer research
First things first, in order to deliver stellar customer service and support, you have to know and understand your customers on a deeper level. When you’re communicating and engaging with existing customers, you need to know exactly what they’re looking to achieve and what their unique business needs are so that you can deliver a tailored experience. This will make them feel more valued and taken care of, and it will show them how much you appreciate their business.
On the other hand, customer research is imperative for your acquisition strategy as well, because you can’t just advertise your product without optimizing it to accommodate the needs of your target demographic. With the right information in your hands, you will be able to create tailored plans and product bundles that will provide all of the solutions your potential customers are looking for, making them more inclined to reach out and become your long-term brand advocates.
Treat your customers like partners
Speaking of making them feel like you truly care about their business and are invested in their growth, it’s important to understand that B2B customers are more like partners, because they provide a higher lifetime value than the customers in the B2C sector. This means that you need to take a more customer-centric approach to support and relationship management in order to improve that value over time, and show your customers just how invaluable you are to their long-term success.
The information you’ve collected and collated will come in handy here, as it will allow you to understand your partners on a more intricate level, their standing in their industry, their unique needs and goals, and what they need to do in order to ensure long-term growth. To truly dazzle them, make sure to go above and beyond when communicating and collaborating on joint projects, and make sure that your customer service agents know exactly how to approach each of your customers.
Utilize better communication technology
To deliver stellar customer support, you have to make yourself available to your customers on a 24/7 basis, which requires you to upgrade your phone system to a cloud-based solution like VoIP. Voice over internet protocol is the best solution for B2B companies when it comes to internal and external communication, and for a number of reasons.
Firstly, VoIP is a low-cost cloud solution, making it the best business phone service at the best price for national and international calls that don’t rack up the phone bill and come equipped with a variety of digital features to make communication more efficient and effective. Depending on your VoIP plan, you should have access to various collaboration tools, analytics and virtual assistants, conferencing tools, and many other features that will allow you to communicate with your customers from anywhere in the world.
Provide support on numerous channels
Another reason why you need a comprehensive communication tool like VoIP is so that you can provide an omni-channel service to your customers, which is becoming increasingly important in a world where you can communicate with customers on numerous platforms. From mobile messaging apps to good old email, from social media chats to phone calls and video, you need to be available on all of these channels in order to deliver that high-quality service and support that your customers are expecting to receive.
Be present in their lives
Last but not least, always remember that you need to be present in the lives of your customers and guide them every step of the way if you want to keep them at your side over the long term. You can’t just sell them a product or provide a service without regularly checking in to see how they are doing, instead, you need to take an active role in this relationship.
Be sure to touch base regularly and schedule video calls with your clients, send out informative emails, and just shoot them a message from time to time to see if there’s anything they need help with. This will keep your brand on their minds and will strengthen your relationship so that you don’t lose a single customer in the increasingly competitive B2B market.
Wrapping up
The B2B sector might be on the rise, but that also means that it’s getting more competitive by the day, so you need to double-down on customer support and relationship management. Using these essential tools and tactics will allow you to maximize the lifetime value of your customers, bring new business to your doorstep, and portray your brand in the best possible light.
Hazel Raoult is the Marketing Manager at PRmention, a digital PR agency for SaaS and Tech Businesses.