Whether you are operating a B2B or B2C business – the customer is still always right. B2B businesses face a difficult challenge when it comes to customer service, this is because they are often dealing with other businesses that understand the basic standards of service, and expect the best.
A more modern approach to customer service practices would suggest that businesses take the focus off of who is “right” and shift the focus to problem solving. Training employees that deal with customers to adopt an attitude of problem solving, above all, can take the quality of service to a gold standard level.
Digitize and Automate
Technology is your friend, and is also your greatest ally in providing an exceptional customer service experience. Whenever there are opportunities to set up automated notifications, reports, emails or task reminders – take them. With the right software and close attention to detail during set-up, these automated reminders and notifications can not only save businesses a substantial amount of time and labor, but can also leave a lasting impression on customers.
Understand Their Business
Depending on the industry a business serves, many B2Bs have a wide variety of customers that appeal to all kinds of markets. In order to serve these customers well, sales representatives and account managers need to make an important effort upfront to understand how their client’s business operates and how they can offer value in the relationship from the jump. Once they have a better understanding, account managers are then able to provide valuable resources outside of their product offering and identify potential issues before they even happen. This is a surefire way to impress your customers.
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Help Them Help Their Customers
Just as you value your customers, your clients value theirs equally as much. Assert your value by making it your mission to guarantee their customers are absolutely delighted. This doesn’t mean that you are interacting with their customers in any way however, by ensuring your product or service is making their operation seamless and efficient you are helping them provide great service to their customers. Occasionally conducting surveys, asking questions about how your product or service impacts their customer experience can not only provide valuable feedback, but also shows them that you are a strong, committed, business partner.
Track Data
Staring at data for too long can make anyone cross-eyed – but nevertheless, it’s extremely important to track. Setting up a basic system to track service requests, customer service calls and response times is crucial to managing an exceptional customer service experience. Depending on the size of a business, it can be very difficult for owners and managers to understand the everyday interactions their customers have with their account reps. Tracking data in a system can give managers a birds eye view of what problems are occurring and how quickly they are being resolved.
Because the nature of B2B transactions tend to be larger in volume than B2C, losing a single client can have a detrimental impact on a B2B company. This makes customer service and customer retention equally as important as the initial sales efforts. Don’t let customer service take the back seat, it can have a substantial impact on the bottom line.
