Heard of it yet? You will, if only because the term is being rapidly co-opted by consultants. Business process re-engineers, customer satisfaction specialists and brand consultants each claim these two words as their own, when in fact it is so much more.
A customer experience is the embodiment of the brand; it is any interaction between an organisation and a customer. It blends an organisation’s physical performance, the senses stimulated and emotions evoked, measuring each intuitively against customers’ expectations at the point of contact.’ Bluntly, every direct or indirect contact you have with your customers will be measured against their expectations and count for or against from that point on.
Great customer experiences place the customer’s physical needs and emotional expectations at the heart of everything the business does. They generate revenue, reduce costs and provide long-term competitive advantage.
So why does this matter in B2B? The expectations of B2B customers have been raised by their experiences as consumers; why shouldn’t a B2B organisation provide a customer experience as excellent as Amazon’s or Pret a Manger’s? Equally, B2B products and services have been commoditised and their lifecycles shortened just as they have in B2C markets and traditional differentiating factors – such as price and quality – have moved from being differentiators to hygiene factors. “Aha”, say the brand consultants, “but this is what brands are for: they differentiate.” In principle perhaps, but less so in practice. Brands represent promises to customers that businesses often break as strategies are not supported by appropriate processes, measures and targets, and managers focus only on short-term targets. Building a great customer experience may seem a challenge but it’s one that will pay off handsomely in today’s increasingly tough markets.
