Solid management of the customer experience is just as important for B2B organizations as it is for the service industry

When asked to think of a recent customer experience, most peoples' thoughts first go to recent restaurant visits, a travel experience, a store visit, or other service industry encounter—all essentially consumer experience. But business to business organizations must also recognize that a corporate reputation is not just built through branding, marketing, sales calls, and customer service. Every encounter a business customer has with an organization contributes to the establishment of a corporate reputation.

Touchpoint is the term given to any form of customer encounter with a brand. For the B2B organization, key touch points are often overlooked. Knowing the higher costs associated with acquiring new customers, B2B organizations should examine key customer touchpoints, ensuring they are meeting existing customer needs. While key touchpoints vary by sector and even customer segment, some common customer touchpoints that can leave customers disappointed include:

Billing: The least exciting part of a sale for both parties (buyer and seller) is the first bill. But a sweep under the rug approach just won't do. Too often, by the time the first bill arrives, the ever-so-helpful sales person has moved on to his next prospect, leaving the buyer to interpret the billing on her own or to deal with the accounting department. Organizations could decrease buyer remorse and perhaps even grow referrals by taking customers through a first invoice. This billing overview may even provide an opportunity for positive purchase reinforcement, showing clients savings or value received.

Quoting: Is the quoting that you provide customers based on what's easy for your organization, or it is formatted the way the customer asked? So many quotes are churned out based on the selling organization's templates, formats, and terms, not the buyers specs and requirements. Can you format your quote to match the customer's outline?

Issue Resolution: I was recently shopping for a B2B wireless provider and knew I found my fit when one dealer told me they believe in a single point of contact for issue resolution. Customer service is not a department, it is a philosophy. Organizations that want to win in the service sector must work to resolve issues as quickly as possible and with the customers' first point of contact with the organization.

Communications: Do you make it very easy for customers to find multiple ways to reach you in all your communication pieces? Most people will say "yes," but the communication pieces themselves tell another story. Phone numbers are so dominant on the product pages of a website and then often disappeared or buried on invoices. Isn't a call from an existing customer concerning their bill as important as a new customer sale?

Business to business organizations should regularly conduct ongoing service evaluations of all customer touchpoints, not unlike a restaurant or store's mystery shopper program. The best customer experience evaluations map a customer's journey with the brand and evaluate each customer touchpoint. Benchmarks can then be set allowing for quantitative evaluation of all aspects of the service offering.

Knowing the cost of attracting new customers can be six to seven times higher than keeping an existing customer, a B2B customer engagement plan can quickly pay off by revealing customer frustrations and opportunities to improve the offering.