B2B companies are struggling with a loss of control over the customer experience (CX) today. As they expand their indirect channels, this issue will only get worse. The solution: Don’t add to the noise, but make music with your efforts—and customers will respond.
That’s the conclusion of Accenture Strategy’s new B2B Customer Experience 2017 study, which finds that the complexity of customer buying journeys, coupled with disconnected channel partner networks, are inhibiting B2B companies from delivering personalized customer experiences.
Just 21% of sales and customer service executives surveyed feel they have control of their organization’s sales networks and overall customer experience.
What’s required? B2B organizations need to “abandon the benign neglect of traditional channel management and adopt an orchestrated approach to drive connected growth.”
“B2B leaders know that customer experience is the gateway to growth and have increasingly relied on channel partners to help them deliver. But many have been flying blind,” Robert Wollan, senior managing director and global Advanced Customer Strategy lead at Accenture Strategy said in a press release.
“Distracted by building extensive partner networks to increase selling opportunities, they’ve missed the critical balance of picking and managing partners who can leverage customer insight and use it to deliver better experiences. To regain control, B2B leaders will orchestrate their sales ecosystem by seeing partners as an extension of their business and empower them with customer insights, coaching and support. Only then can they fully tap their connected growth potential.”
Three key factors for the disconnect: digital disruption, the rise of consumerism and new services that make B2B customers harder to reach.
Most customers are already 57% through the buying process before they first engage with a company representative; 90% never respond to cold outreach; and 61% of all B2B transactions now start online.
While 71% of B2B executives find their customers expect B2C-experiences of fast response times, consistent experiences across multiple channels and 24/7 availability, nearly half (49%) understand they are failing to deliver on those expectations.
The travel industry is particularly challenged on this front, as the marketplace—worth $7 trillion globally—is under pressure to stay relevant in a competitive space where change is accelerated and upstarts like Airbnb have changed the business.
At the recent SKIFT Global Forum in New York, Accenture’s B2ME Index from new research and an incubation hub in Ireland, The Dock, revealed key disparities between experiences brands are offering versus the reality of consumer expectations such as:
• Fewer than half (47%) of consumers believe that airlines and hotels understand the customer, and only 39% feel that OTAs (online travel agents) understand them
• Two-thirds (67%) of respondents want brands to use their previous travel information to help them make better travel decisions and only 43% feel that companies know and understand them well.
• Leading travel companies Meliá Hotels and Carnival Corporation are on the leading edge for leveraging personalization technologies to elevate customer experiences.
Accenture Strategy surveyed 1,350 executives from sales, service and marketing functions from B2B organizations worldwide in May 2017, the majority of which posted annual revenues of more than US$1bn.
“B2B companies recognize that channel partner disconnect is hindering their growth potential,” said Jason Angelos, managing director, Advanced Customer Strategy, Accenture Strategy. “Companies with integrated partner lead generation and coaching are 63% more likely to exceed their indirect channel revenue goals. It’s not surprising that the majority of organizations are planning significant investments in enhancing digital channels to improve ecosystem engagement over the next two years.”
Recommendations from the report include:
1. Pivoting from partner management to ‘ecosystem orchestration’ – Companies can regain control over customer experience by considering indirect partners as extensions of their own business and critical enablers of customer value. Intentionally teaming with a select network of partners and ensuring they are well supported can significantly improve customer experience.
2. Supporting partner priorities – In an indirect channel ecosystem, understanding the needs and preferences of end customers must take priority. Delivering the best customer experiences requires connected insights. Feedback mechanisms and data sharing are essential to building trust and understanding how to create new value for customers. Providing partners with something they value – such as leads, resources, customer events and sales coaching – will encourage continuous customer information sharing.
3. Adopting a new currency for connected growth – Customer data management, analytics and social listening technologies can help companies deliver the relevant and personalized experiences that customers crave. Investing in these technologies and integrating them with core customer experience capabilities, such as closed-loop feedback, is a solid way to measure performance.
Click here to download the report infographic.
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