You've probably already noticed it in your news feed: we regularly have employees, customers or partners in our network who are willing to share their pride: "Proud of this product launch", "Proud of my team", "Proud of my company". Soon you too will be able to show your pride in being a leader in B2B user experience. But before that, let's see where you stand.
"Oh, right, you had to click here? I didn't understand, so I left the application. "
This little sentence alone sums up the many bottlenecks that users of professional services, the good old B2B, can encounter. This little sentence is a signal that your customer is sending you, clear evidence that your application or service has a design flaw. Updating the "help" section and adding a few tooltips to limit the damage is no longer enough. Because B2B has changed in dimension.
A few years ago, it was still possible to maintain a captive clientele through the exclusivity of a service or a database. Then came Dropbox, Google, the champions of simplification, followed by a host of new generation publishers and pure-players who added to the mix.In just a few years, B2B has become a lot younger. The B2B customer is not as volatile as the B2C user, but he can now afford it. Gone are the multi-year contracts, gone are the monthly rental offers. In this context, the bar for user experience has moved up a few notches.
In a study on B2B customer experience, Accenture distinguishes three categories of companies: leaders (23%, you, now or soon), followers and laggards. Leaders are those who rely primarily on digital to drive performance and deliver a quality B2B experience.
"To meet the growing demands of their customers, who now have the same expectations as traditional consumers, and to outwit the competitive onslaught of new entrants, B2B companies must be prepared to design and implement a radically new customer experience, otherwise their investments will not result in any significant improvement."
Fabrice Marque, Accenture Strategy Director.
The message is clear, whether you are a leader, a follower or a laggard, you need to invest in your tools to stay ahead of your competitors and meet your customers' expectations. It is precisely to help you with this strategy that we have put together this series of tips, notes and feedback. We hope you will find it useful and motivating to accelerate your B2B user experience.