Changes in consumer behaviour mean that most modern customers now conduct comprehensive research before approaching a supplier. And this means successful businesses need to offer consistent, excellent experiences across all their channels – achieving unified commerce.
Because modern consumers collect information, compare and weigh up the advantages and disadvantages themselves before making a buying decision, they are often a long way into the purchase process before any engagement with a supplier. To create business opportunities and gain repeat custom, companies need to achieve an experience that extends across - and is the same in - all channels. This is particularly key in the B2B sector. To succeed here, it's best to begin at the opposite end of the process and collect information about your customers to achieve a 360-degree view.
What does a 360-degree view mean?
Often there are relatively few things which will distinguish you from your competitors. This has been a key driver behind a change of focus – from product, price and transaction to a good customer experience across channels.
A 360-degree view of a customer essentially means that you try to compile all customer data collected before a purchase, during the purchase and after a transaction is complete.
This should then be available in a single view, regardless of where and when the purchase was made. When the information is presented in a structured way, historical data can help provide insights. It’s worth looking at which products and campaigns have been successful, previous purchase history, maintenance activities. Collecting real-time data will also help form a picture of customer behaviour and the problems they are trying to solve.
So why do you need a 360-degree view?
Well, as already explained, it isn’t just about selling your product – it’s about understanding the customer’s needs when they begin their purchase process so you can guide them along the way.
Of course, the journey continues after initial purchase, with maintenance, delivery of consumables, sourcing of spare parts, upgrades, manuals and more. A complete overview of the customer and their needs will help you to maximise their value over time.
When you compile historic and real-time data and understand the behaviour in the customer’s journey, you can start to make predictions, present relevant products and campaigns, and customise content based on the individual or company’s needs.
Here are just a few of the main advantages:
Better focuses on marketing and sales campaigns Intelligent customer information
There are many interaction points where you communicate with your customers. These can be through your website, during a maintenance visit or on social media. Together, all of these interaction points generate valuable information which you can use to improve the customer experience. Studies show that the most recent interaction has an impact on the customer’s buying decision, and you can use this data to customise your communication with the customer in real time.
Better focuses on marketing and sales campaigns
When you have the right information about the customer, co-ordination between your production, marketing, sales and customer maintenance teams can improve. You can achieve more with less effort. And your customer campaigns can be tailored to meet their specific demands or issues.
Better predictive intelligence
With complete customer information, you can adapt your e-commerce or customer portal to be more proactive during the customer journey. For example, if your customer has just bought a ‘large machine’, the current probability of a similar purchase is reduced. However, the customer may be interested in insurance or maintenance packages. Alternatively, earlier data can indicate that a customer may be looking for a replacement product, a spare part or want to re-order based on earlier purchases.
Improved customer loyalty
When you are able to offer the customer an experience which intuitively fulfils their needs, there is a high probability of increased loyalty. The objective is to improve the experience throughout the entire customer journey – from contact to sales and delivery, from installation to re-order. If all other factors are equal, there is a high probability that the experience a customer has during the buying process will significantly contribute to improving customer loyalty.
How do you create a 360-degree view of your customers?
Even the most conservative of B2B customers now prefer to carry out their research and information collection online. Today’s customers also place increased importance on other customers’ recommendations. This is where an informative website, a straightforward e-commerce solution, an interactive customer portal, social media, marketing channels and other factors come into play.
Because the customer journey has moved online, a well-integrated e-commerce solution or customer portal can help you obtain a 360-degree view of your customers and give them a significantly better customer experience.
You can view a customer portal as a gateway to all of your services and data – and those of your resellers too. It’s a centralised way to create customer engagement by offering value-added interaction through system integrations, standardised data, self-service and transparency for the customer.
The biggest challenge for all B2B companies when it comes to creating an improved customer experience and customer-centric portal lies in being able to track an individual’s journey across a number of channels, different devices and interactions with different departments. This can lead to a disconnected and inconsistent customer experience.
A 360-degree view of the customer means that you collect all of your customer’s data in a single place. This is usually stored in a CRM system or a CDP (Customer Data Platform), where you save interactions in a single digital customer profile.
What are the next steps?
- Carry out an inventory of where you store customer data – both historical and real-time data. This may be spread over several systems and departments.
- Evaluate and agree on a shared system where all data can be collected and stored.
- Define what type of events you will collect and where. Then begin to make your data usable. Sort, clean and enhance the information.
- When the data is usable, it’s ready to be shared with other systems, for example the customer portal, which can create value.
- Identify and expand your opportunities for improving your customer experience in the customer portal. The quality of the information will get better and more relevant over time and will, thus, provide a better basis for reports, personalisation and customer segmentation.
Is this all easy? No, it’s not, but it is a necessary step to improving your customer understanding – and then optimising their experiences.