Customer Experience Benchmark Study for B2B Marketers
What makes up an effective customer experience?
85% of B2B marketers agree that consistency across content, teams and channels are the backbone of an effective customer experience according to new research from Kpost.
This key finding was based on an online survey that sought to identify and benchmark the key indicators of B2B customer experience success. Examining the marketing trends, tactics, and technologies that drive an effective customer experience as well as the major barriers to success.
Great customer experiences drive revenue.
We are currently in the Age of the Customer, where B2B buyers are in control of their own purchasing process from start to finish. Long gone are the days of customers picking up the phone to request information on a company and its products. Today’s customers conduct the majority of the purchasing process online. These tech-savvy buyers have high expectations of the digital markets and are easily influenced by negative experiences. Although there are obvious potential negative repercussions for these high customer expectations, they also open the door for organizations that make providing consistent, and intriguing interactions across the customer journey a priority to win customer loyalty. The journey of B2B buyers is often a twisting and turning road propelled by an extraordinarily digital and customer-driven landscape. Which creates a high level of difficulty for marketers. Only 12% of B2B marketers rating themselves as “very effective” at delivering a great customer experience. The biggest barrier to success is inefficient internal processes.
What makes a great customer experience?
Continuing the idea of consistency across content, teams, and channels, the research identified three key elements to successfully delivering a consistent and effective customer experience:
- Efficient internal processes
- Tracking and reporting the right metrics
- Alignment across internal teams
In fact, 56% of B2B marketers don’t feel like they have the visibility into initiatives, timelines, and deliverables across the teams.
What are B2B marketer’s top priorities?
We anticipate that just like 2016, B2B marketers top priorities will be lead generation, revenue/ROI and brand awareness. Content marketing is a powerful tool to help drive brand awareness, educate customer and prospects 
and improve the brand experience. 75% of B2B marketers take a buyer-centric approach to content because of its impact on the purchase cycle. To measure the impact it has on revenue, marketers need to develop key performance metrics for tracking how content improves the customer experience. Content conversion between the sales stages is the most important metric to evaluate the bottom line impact on the customer experience.
Content Conversion Most Important Metric
What’s next?
Hopefully, this research has given you insights into the key elements required to successfully deliver a consistent and effective customer experience. With a comprehensive view of the customer, use these benchmarks to help guide you in developing your CX strategy for 2017.
Source: B2B Customer Experience Benchmark Report 2016
Filed under: Customer Experience