Customer Support Software Featured Articles

There have always been distinct differences in how businesses treat business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) audiences, and while the dissimilarities in how we reach the audience seem clear, customer service and support rely on common elements.

Customer support experts at Team Support (News - Alert) published an infographic that breaks down the difference in customer service with B2B and B2C customers; while both demographics require exceptional customer care, the approach to each is different simply based on volume of customers and the problems they will experience.

For B2B companies, providing a satisfying customer experience is a lead generation and acquisition enhancement vehicle that puts prospects deeper into a sales funnel. For current customers, it’s a retention driver that decreases customer churn by helping to optimize and provide the best account management and customer-facing experiences possible.

A B2C consumer following your brand isn’t necessarily looking to build a close relationship with it. The B2B buying cycle is often much longer than the B2C decision process. It’s safe to assume that the B2B client needs much more nurturing and close attention. B2C purchases tend to gratify immediate needs, while B2B decisions are meant to complete long-term goals.

The crucial differences between B2B and B2C eCommerce all come back to just one thing: The customer. Similar as they may seem, businesses and individual consumers purchase for radically different reasons and want to do business in completely different ways.

There is plenty of common ground between B2B and B2C customers, but the disparities are essential for professionals who work on either (or both) sides to understand to be as successful as possible. At the end of the day, no matter which side of the B2B or B2C divide a representative works on, it’s all about people to people.

Technology has afforded all kinds of businesses options when it comes to offering products and services and servicing the customer, whether those customers are businesses or consumers. Having a customer support solution in place can help facilitate relationships on both sides of the aisle.  Ask yourself, what can I do to make it easier for the customer to do business with me? Forming and maintaining relationships with customers is one of the most important aspects of running a business, and with the right tools, customers can be handled in an organized and systematic way, thus leading to a happy customer.