Enhancing the customer experience and building an effective business to business (B2B) value chain is one of the most challenging undertakings that is associated with the fall out of the supply chain crisis that was caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Added to this is the growing need for companies to embrace digitization and automate processes. How do you automate a process which is human centric in nature?
Solving this Rubik’s Cube will take significant investment in time and capital. I Recently read a comprehensive report from PwC which discusses enhancing this value chain. This article is the first part of a two-part series focusing on this.
Defining and delivering a customer-based experience
The report points out that experience spans the customer life cycle, permeates the end-to-end value chain and ecosystem, and is manifested throughout the product’s lifetime and beyond. It can be delivered in different ways by multiple employees and partners, and a variety of factors should be considered in its design.
B2B and industrial organisations need to ground every decision—including design, sales, planning, production, delivery, service and support—in an intimate understanding of markets and customer segments, and they need the agility to deliver a great experience for each of these segments. For example, companies must understand the occasions during which customers have needs and make decisions, and who makes these decisions. They must tease apart the specific needs of each customer and segment, particularly where current offerings leave needs unmet. They also must assess how the company will interact with the customer after the initial product delivery and measure the impact of each decision based on how the customer will realise value.
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The report adds that it’s also important for B2B players to fully understand the user perspective—otherwise, providing a great overall experience will be difficult. This may require special effort for customers, distributors and employees, because B2B industrial manufacturers often know their immediate customer but lack user insights.
What does this comprehensive approach to experience look like when mapped to the value chain? From the manufacturer’s perspective, the value chain can be seen as a continuum. But for the purpose of illustration, we can consider it to begin with the product or offer, then move along a familiar path from presales and customer acquisition to sales, to operations planning and production, to delivery and installation, and then to after-sales and service. Points of interaction occur at these stages, as well as in the experience of repeat customers and through the influence of marketing.
Reflect on customer interactions
The report points out that, at each of these stages (product offering, presales and customer acquisition, configuration and sales, delivery and installation, aftersales support, and repeat business), companies should reflect on their customer interactions, ensuring that the tasks involved reflect the needs of each customer, with the intent to serve the customer throughout the integrated journey. Not every company will need to rethink every step of the value chain for every customer. An important part of this strategy is determining where the pain points or opportunities are for each client and then making decisions based on these assessments.
The report adds that, for example, during the offer or product development stage, B2B organisations need to update their products, solutions and services on an ongoing basis given changes in requirements, competitive improvements, digitisation and other factors. They can better understand the market by seeking input from current and potential customers through interviews and surveys and by analysing what competitors are offering. Based on their assessments, they should ensure that they have the right digital collaboration and simulation tools in place, as well as the right go-to-market and channel options.
Embracing a human-centred experience
The report points out that a human-centred experience respects the often-unseen employees of your B2B customer as the ‘consumers’ of your company, and emphasises a shift from a transactional exchange to a meaningful interaction and relationship. Consider, for example, a supplier of industrial pumps, selling to a paper manufacturing company (the B2B customer in this scenario). Individuals in various functions of the paper manufacturer—including procurement, finance, operations, maintenance and logistics—are involved in a series of exchanges with the pump supplier, such as sales, service, engineering and accounts receivable.
These interactions involve the product, as well as associated elements such as service and life-cycle support. But they also involve ongoing exchanges with the customer’s procurement and supply chain team regarding delivery information and performance; the health, safety and environment team regarding safety and risks; and the finance team regarding billing and payments, among others. Each of these interactions creates value for the customer and has an element of experience tied to both financial and non-financial metrics.
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The report adds that, in addition, interactions in the ecosystem outside the pump manufacturer’s direct supply chain—including with distributors, service shops and suppliers—shape the experience of the paper manufacturer. Each of these touchpoints can convey elements of value and experience, a ‘moment of truth.’ Your customer listening efforts should pinpoint where there are both issues and opportunities across your customer touchpoints, creating a strong insights-to-action loop. These experiences can and should be anticipated, and designed, based on a cost–benefit analysis.
The customer is not a single person or entity but represents the various functions and stakeholders at the customer, and the relevant people involved in these functions. And behind every business customer are the people who choose or influence the products and services chosen for their organisation. They make or shape these choices based on their assessment and perception of value.
As in the consumer context, these decisions are often driven by many dynamic factors, including how customers believe the product or service will deliver value and how it compares to competitors’ offerings; how the product or service is supported by dealers, after-parts and service providers, and experts and training institutes; and how various functions and individuals in their organisations will experience the product or service. It is a deep understanding of how these decision-makers and influencers balance options that defines what companies should prioritise.
The report points out that the human-centred experience needs to be designed into not only the product or service, but also the interactions and touchpoints between the company’s organisation and its supporting ecosystem. Most of the interactions and customer journeys can be anticipated and designed, with particular attention paid to the moments of truth. Doing so will require the use of data and insights, as well as a method to communicate about interactions and transactions, such as traditional or social media marketing, dealer interactions, website exchanges and customer service. Many of these interactions will need investments in systems and operating model elements and, most important, in training and culture change.
The foundation of all this is empathy—the ability of an organisation and its people to consistently be aware of the customer’s frame of reference and context, and to anticipate and respond accordingly. Among the more well-known and high-impact examples of empathy in action is GE Healthcare’s redesign of the MRI experience for children after an engineer observed their terror and connected it with the high rate of sedation required. When the overwhelming experience became an adventure, that rate dropped drastically, and customer satisfaction increased by 90%.
This is all valuable information that turnaround professionals can share with their clients.
The Mystery Practitioner is an industry commentator that focuses on the shifting dynamics and innovative thinking that BRPs and turnaround professionals will need to embrace in order to achieve success in their businesses.
