Customer Support Software Featured Articles

There’s a lot to be said about the customer experience. In fact, a number of companies are finding that they can differentiate themselves from the competition through the experiences they create. This is great for those companies who have the resources and the audience to accomplish these goals. For those who are in the business-to-business (B2B) environment, the challenge is a little more complex and may require customer support software.

A recent Business2Community piece highlights how companies may be struggling in this environment, lacking the guidance they need to address customer experience challenges and how to become customer experience leaders. Given the results of a recent Accenture (News - Alert) report, only 23 percent of B2B companies have received strong returns as a result of their customer experience initiatives; only 20 percent generate low or even negative returns; and 57 percent fall right in the middle, either delivering customer experience mediocrity or lacking a solid customer experience strategy.

For those who are struggling, that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve customer experience success in the B2B market. It simply means you have to take a different approach if you want the same outcome. Accenture suggests a couple of different strategies that may be worth putting into practice. For one – it may make sense to start from the back and get to the front. In other words, it’s important to note that the most important point in the customer experience lifecycle is the customer service touchpoint and that needs to be the gateway to the customer – not sales.

At the same time, it can be quite profitable to over-invest in the traditional. Those who are leading in this area tend to invest twice as much as their peers in offline capabilities, including field service processes and tools, legacy CRM systems and even contact center. They understand the value of customer support software and put it in place with a particular goal in mind. This investment in the resources and the people tends to lead to considerable value for the organization.

These leading companies also tend to invest more in their digital tools. The focus tends to be on the omnichannel experience, ensuring that customers have the same great experience whether they are making a call, sending an email or posting to a social media channel. The priority here is the customer experience in a way that delivers value to the customer base. Success is driven through a focus on the value it creates for the customer.

In all, it shouldn’t matter if the customer is a B2B or B2C customer – they still want a quality experience. The company able to make the right investments in customers support software and other assets is better positioned to deliver on those expectations.