The B2b Customer experience funnel

According to Gartner - 76% of executives now see Customer Experience as critical to meeting their organisations business goals.

‘Customer Experience’ is the new battleground for B2B marketers - where new and existing customers can be won and lost to competition who take it more seriously or think more creatively around their CX programmes.

But historically, B2B Marketers haven’t paid enough attention to Customer Experience. They’ve spent their time, effort and budget on finding and winning new customers, then vanishing in a puff of smoke once they’ve signed on the dotted line.

So, it’s time for you to think beneath the sales funnel.

Any marketer worth their salt knows the classic sales funnel, but I think the funnel should continue past the point of sale, into the customer experience funnel that lies below.

The four stages of the customer experience funnel:

Onboarding: At this stage, marketers need to focus on the onboarding process. What does the experience look and feel like in your first month as a customer? What training material are you providing? What access to experts in your business are you providing to make the process smooth? How are you reassuring your new customer they’ve made the right decision?

Thriving: Once customers have been successfully onboarded and are up and running, what are you doing to help them thrive? How often are you checking in on their business goals? What data are you sharing to help them get more from your product or service? How many check ins are you providing to make sure your customers are happy?

Delighting: During their life as a customer, businesses want to know you care about them. So, how many unexpected moments of surprise and delight are you offering across the year? How are you going above and beyond? What can you do to give moments of joy that will increase their propensity to continue to buy?

Retaining: For many B2B customers, the only time they hear from a supplier post-purchase is at the renewal stage. Hopefully, if you’ve put the effort into the previous three stages, this won’t be the case. But renewal and retention is the key point. How are you showing the value you have bought a customer? How are you showing your ROI? What are you doing to convince them they can’t do without you?

At each of these stages, B2B marketing teams have the chance to be creative, innovate and stand out from their competition. A great customer experience programme will lead to increased renewals, increased word of mouth recomendations and a healthier bottom line.

Do you need some help with your customer experience programme? We run a half day B2B Customer Experience Innovation session. Sign up below to find out more.