5 Tips to Build a World-Class B2B Customer Support Organization | #customersupport #supporticket

A customer can be very satisfied with the products and services of a company, but that doesn’t mean they’ll remain loyal. Competitors can attract them by offering better customer benefits, including proactive customer support.

Customer experience is decisive for both satisfaction and loyalty. However, most companies do not offer great customer experiences. According to a study by B2B International, B2B companies that are truly customer-oriented are only 14%.¹

This shows that B2B organizations need to focus more on their customers. By providing superior customer support, B2B companies can differentiate their brands and improve their profits.

5 Tips to Build the best B2B Customer Support

Price comes later for B2B buyers. They insist first on high-quality products that they can trust over the long term, even if it means an extra payment. Good quality customer service plays a major role in purchasing decisions for B2B companies. If you’re looking to improve your brand’s customer support, here are five pro-customer service tips for B2B brands.

1.   Know your customers

B2B customer support is relationship-oriented. You need to build strong relationships with multiple people in your account and provide them with personalized solutions.

B2B teams always deal with experts from different sectors. These customers are tech-savvy, data-obsessed, and have their own customers. Build a strategy that’s customer-centric and supportive in nature. And position your brand as a partner for the growth and success of your customers. Offer technically superior and long-term solutions to help your customers achieve their business goals.

2.  Omni-digital support

Every B2B customer has their own unique problems. Some complain about software problems while others face more advanced issues related to the products. This naturally calls for cross-functional collaboration between the various professionals and teams in the company. In such situations, it must be ensured that the foundation for communication and collaboration is perfectly laid.

Forget about emailing or messaging to get answers to simple customer-related queries. All teams including customer support, marketing, and sales need to have easy access to customer data. Regardless of the buyer’s journey, good collaboration is the key to deliver a consistent and personalized customer experience. You can also optimize your online customer service channel to a centralized dashboard. This allows you to monitor the support requests coming from various channels like live chat, email, phone, and other social media platforms.

3.  Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Most B2B customer support operate on a first-come, first-served basis. You cannot ask one customer to skip the support queue before another unless a prioritization system is in place like SLA.

SLA is a service agreement. It describes the mutual understanding that you and your customers share, the services you provide them, their accessibility, and your responsibilities. Since it is signed before entering a sales contract, it sets the correct expectations for your support, skills, and limitations. It assists you to re-prioritize your support tickets based on the severity of customer issues, and their complexity.

4.  Self-service options

Self-service support options are a great way to improve your customer support service. You can create a support page with FAQs, guides, product documentation, video tutorials, and more.²

Self-service support offers several benefits for your customers and your business as well. Having a good self-service option can help your team work more efficiently and focus on more complicated problems.

5.  Proactive Customer Support

Brands that offer proactive customer support always come out with success. A proactive company can predict the needs and desires of its customers and strives to solve problems before they arise. A proactive response is easier if your business meets customer needs well and can predict potential customer needs and complaints.

Proactive customer service can add value to customer lifetime and customer loyalty. Being proactive also helps create a direct customer feedback loop so you can address minor issues before they become big.

The key is to put your customers at the heart of what your company does and regularly look for business opportunities that can improve customer experience.

Take good care of your customers and they will naturally take care of you. They will reward you with honesty, loyalty, and lasting trust.

Image credits: ¹https://www.b2binternational.com/publications/six-steps-to-b2b-customer-experience-excellence/

²https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-service-technology 

About Kristin Mortis Kristin Mortis is a Marketing Manager with 8+ years of experience at TDInsights based out of Plano, Texas. She helps businesses deliver the strongest marketing turnaround with cutting-edge digital strategies and tools. She writes about B2B Marketing, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and other technological innovations. Connect with @KristinMortis on Twitter to learn about the emerging practices being implemented in the B2B segment.