Customer Support Software Featured Articles

If all consumers are people, do we really need to separate business to consumer (B2C) from business to business (B2C)? Regardless of the environment in which the individual is making the purchase, don’t the same things matter, like price, color, size and deliverability? For the business targeting business buyers, making this assumption could easily render it obsolete.

Customer support software suggests a streamlined approach, but ignoring the differences in the channels is business suicide. A recent Business2Community piece explored these differences and how they exist no matter the industry. Let’s take a look at some of the items on this list and how B2B support differs from that offered in the B2C environment.

Complexity of the Issues

Support teams in both situations are put in place to ensure the type of customer service delivered is of the highest quality. It’s not uncommon for companies to put customer support software in place to ensure consistency, but one area is much more complex than the other. B2C customer support tends to be much more focused, offering straightforward issues with much quicker resolutions. In the B2B environment, this is often not the case. B2B decision makers tend to be much savvier and only reach out to vendors with complex issues that require extensive interactions to resolve.

Connection with the Client

In the B2C environment, it’s often very common for companies to address the needs of the consumer in a collective arrangement. Companies look at the customer as a whole, not as individuals, until an issue is identified. Customer support software is then used to facilitate the interactions, find a quick resolution and send the happy customer on his or her way. In the B2B world, the relationship with the client is much more complex, with familiarity weaved together. That puts much more pressure on the situation to find a solution so as to protect the relationship and ensure ongoing collaboration.

More Clients within the Client

It may sound like an interesting mix, but the reality is that most business engagements mean that you’re interacting with more than one individual on an account. That means there may be different opinions entering into the mix, confusing the issue. One may be happy with a resolution that fails to meet the expectations of another. Balancing many different personalities, interaction channels, and more while meeting the needs of the organization is a tough balancing act. This makes it much more challenging to meet customer expectations while also protecting the profit margin as even internal staff can duplicate efforts.  

Regardless of the industry or the type of call center in place, the customer support software needed has a lot to do with whether you’re a B2C or B2B environment. Understanding the differences is essential to overall success.