Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business. You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

B2B and B2C buying habits are merging

The global survey examined the changing sales process and buying patterns of business and IT decision makers, and found that the customer experience now tops price as the most important factor in a buying decision by an enterprise decision-maker. Notably, business buyers said they are willing to pay up to 30% more for a product or service that offers an improved customer experience.

Among the study's other key findings:

• Businesses no longer have control over information shared about their products or services, as 61% of business decision-makers reported that third-party sites and feedback from business partners, industry peers or social channels are more important than conversations with a company's sales teams when making a purchasing decision.
• Companies are enlisting new people and departments to manage the customer experience. Customer service and call centres, IT and marketing are the leading groups now playing a larger role in the customer experience, and therefore in the sales process.
• Some 70% believe that technology will primarily replace human interaction with customers in the long term. Anticipating this change, many businesses are already making new technology investments, changing business processes and redesigning organisational roles. More than 80% of companies said they had changed at least one business process over the previous three years to better interact with customers.

According to Mick Slattery, Avanade' executive vice president of global service lines, "Businesses have lost control of the sales process, and B2B and B2C buying models are merging. It's no longer business-to-business or business-to-consumer. Those businesses that understand the nature of today's complicated customer relationships are creating longer-term and more lucrative relationships with customers."

Many B2B companies are also updating their business processes to adapt to a new style of work influenced by mobile devices, collaboration tools and social technologies. The survey found that businesses are changing processes to embrace the new business buyer and by increasing customer sales and support technologies (44%), increasing the number of employees interacting with customers (40%) and adding automation to the sales process (32%).

And there are direct business benefits from making such changes. The research noted that businesses investing in technology to support better customer service, and modifying internal roles, are already reporting positive results. Specifically, companies making these changes said they were experiencing increases in customer loyalty (61%), revenues (60%) and customer base (60%).

Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business.

You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy. Grab this goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, technologies, research, suppliers and partners, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid CX strategy.

While most marketers could list maybe a dozen key points for improving their brand's Customer Experience (CX), the researchers and writers at The Marketing Factbook have identified FORTY main 'CX Keys' which will help you drive your customers to new levels of delight, loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

The areas in which customers have direct contact with your organization are perhaps the most obvious places in which CX improvements can be made, and this report addresses all 24 of these 'Direct CX Keys', applicable to offline and online businesses alike.

At the same time there are many other areas that indirectly affect CX (such as the supply chain, policies and processes) in which every business can make simple but far-reaching improvements. This report guides you through the problems and solutions for all 16 of these 'Indirect CX Keys', many of which are often forgotten or under-played even in the best CX strategies.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)