B2B consumers are increasingly benchmarking your service with B2C consumer expectations. If you don’t have a strategy to deal with this changing reality, you will fail to deliver superior customer value.
Leading business-to-business (B2B) brands do learn from their B2C colleagues. Many B2B brands have moved beyond the cost reduction benefits of going digital. Many have understood that it is all about the market-facing challenge of changing customer experience.
Experience is value
In a sense, the B2B consumer has been spoiled by the experiences they have come to expect from the B2C brands they like. The benchmark for B2C consumers is the big digital global companies like Facebook, Netflix and Google. And they benchmark your B2B service to these big guys. Functionality will no longer suffice in your value proposition. Experience is value too!
Are you ready for that? Are you ready to go digital to build more direct channels to business customers? Are you ready to engage with your consumers in a way that fits their modern connected and changing lives? Are you taking an outside-in perspective, putting yourself in the shoes of your consumer? Many of your competitors are, because they have realized that business buyers are indeed consumers too!
Unlock your digital growth
The smart use of technology allows B2B brands to deliver both value and experience to their customers. It is no longer simply about selling cost-effectively. It is about delivering an experience that improves the life—and business outcomes—of the business buyers.
Applying these lessons shouldn’t simply be a matter of trial-and-error: you need a digital strategy and roadmap. And you also need to start thinking about building (digital) ecosystems or looking for knowledge partners to tune in to the rapidly changing business context. Digital business agility is a prerequisite for success!