Skip to main content

Customer Experience Becoming Especially Vital in B2B Sectors

Appian Contributor
November 9, 2016

Acronyms ending with an "X" (UX, CX and even BX) have been gaining prominence lately. In all of these cases, the X stands for experience, and it definitely marks the spot where businesses can find buried treasure. User experiences, customer experiences and brand experiences all play a vital role in creating a coherent, powerful and engaging customer journey. Modern business process management (BPM) software solutions are empowering companies to coordinate their process and data workflows around these experiences, and the technology is becoming vital as service-based operational models rise in the business-to-business sector.

Changing models making experiences vital in B2Bsector

A recent study from Ychen Lu and YueHu of Aalto University explained that organizations in the B2B heavy industry sectorare being forced to revitalize their operational models. Essentially, the days of designing a product, selling it and providing some support are disappearing. In their place, more B2B companies are taking on service models in which the relationship extends beyond simply providing a one-time product, into the realm of an ongoing relationship.

"B2B companies that want to get ahead need to build strong relationships with customers."

According to the news source, this focus on offeringa service instead of a product is making an emphasis on UX, CX and BX extremely important. B2B companies that want to get ahead increasingly need to build strong relationships with customers, and that means providing sensible, consistent experiences across the brand.

Responding to service-oriented models through process innovation

The Harvard Business Review explained that many executives are getting excited about the idea of transforming their businessesand their industries by completely rewriting their operational models around digital technologies. While a small percentage of companies may be able to find success here, the major potential can be realized byimproving existing products and evolving around digital technologies. The HBR study found that:

    • Just 7 percent of companies are using digital initiatives to launch new lines of business

    • Approximately 42 percent of those polled said that digital tools arecreating opportunities to enhance products and services

    • Digital functionality is helping 29 percent of respondents get new products and services to market

A service-oriented business model focusing on theUX, CX and BXconsiderations that come together to form the customer journey benefits substantially from digital technologies. Getting data to the right people at the right time is critical in ensuring positive experiences. Companies that use these Xs to improve the customer journey can ensure a smooth transition to a service-focused operational model.

A Forrester Study: The Future Of Work And Customer Experience

A dynamic case management (DCM) platform combining advanced data visualization and management, analytics, and collaboration and built on a BPM foundation can help provide a single view of customers and improve how organizations serve them. Read the latest Forrester studyThe Future Of Work And Customer Experience Requires A Case Management Approach to learn more.