The Human Customer Is there any other kind?

© 2016 Rightpoint

Your B2B customers are human, of course. We all know that. But think about it. We spend most of our time targeting companies; and the influencers and decision makers in those companies. And maybe (just maybe) the humans behind those roles and titles don’t always get the level of consideration they deserve.

Silly title. Right? Here's why. Human connections are made through emotions and impressions; something that suggests need and generates desire. It seems the overriding shift to sales and marketing in the digital landscape may have occluded this fundamental truth. Turns out, creating that oh-so-human context in a digital format has presented some challenges. And continues to do so.

Still, things aren’t all bad. Awareness is on the rise and we realize its past time to explore new approaches. The smart move now is to take concrete steps to increase effectiveness when it comes to recognizing and addressing the needs of our human customers.

© 2016 Rightpoint

Historically, B2B sales and marketing has been fundamentally different than B2C. There are myriad reasons, including; longer sales cycles, consultative sales methods, more complex negotiations, a “relationship” sell and so on. Consequently, over the past decade as digital platforms took hold of the landscape, the disparity between B2C and B2B continued. B2C moved aggressively to the forefront of developing sleek, effective efforts to attract and sell to humans. While B2B ignored this expanding requirement and, all but universally, chose to lag behind.

B2B’s Great Migration to

Customer Experience in Digital

© 2016 Rightpoint

B2B can no longer claim such differences based on traditional ideas of how it’s always been. There must now be broad acknowledgement that experiences, whether B2B or B2C, need to align with what consumers (humans) want and desire.

Here’s the kicker The bottom line…creating outstanding ‘consumerized’ digital experiences in B2B is now urgent!

© 2016 Rightpoint

Three factors have forced this imperative:

Millennials and the generation behind them (what we’ll call Generation Touch), are rising in power and position when it comes to B2B commerce.

Change is driven by youth, and youth’s infl uence pervades up the demographic.

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50% of all B2B buyers are millennials• Increased from 27% just two years ago

• They demand convenience, collaboration and customization

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B2B buying experience must reflect the consumer world• The process should be as easy as buying online.

Offering features like:

– Streamlined mobile sites and apps

– Effective onsite search

– Customization and personalization

– Integration with other channels

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Buyers have stated they will pay 30% more for superior customer experience• On the other hand, experiences that lack will drive attrition

• Buyers are now inclined to pursue more savvy experiences

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The choice for channels is diverse and growing. Moving forward, this change will be constant. Today’s consumers (our human B2B customers) are happy to explore new modalities and are adopting multiple devices. We must interact with them wherever they are. The only answer is to defi ne effective means to anticipate where they are headed, and meet them there.

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Current channels includeMobile, desktop, tablet, touch, adaptive and flash

Fast evolving channels include Wearables, health and fitness sensors, vehicles,

regulators, voice, and haptics

As we continue to build our brands, new ideas around making voice, sound and haptics the drivers for brand experience and awareness must be evaluated.

We must think deeply about how our brands intersect with clients via these new interfaces.

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Digital (to this point) has often been about chasing the problem in front of us. This will leave us a half-step behind at every turn. Since the change has become undeniably perpetual and swift, we cannot simply chase the current trend. It’s a losing proposition.

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How do we build ourselves into a better future state? Here’s the

question we must answer.

When we think strategically about this, it demands a radically new approach to the ways we’ve traditionally planned for creating digital experiences. In short, we suggest building a Brand OS. That’s right. We’re calling it a Brand Operating System. Here’s the thinking behind it.

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In absolute terms, an operating system is a component of the system software in a computer system. (This you already know.) But here’s the relatable bit — application programs require an operating system to function. The OS is a fundamental piece that allows the layering on of appropriate apps offering the needed functions.

For our purposes, a Brand OS is a metaphor for an ecosystem that, at its core, seeks to intimately involve our customers in the decision making. It encourages us to step outside of our revered tribal knowledge and build models that elevate the voice of our customer, allowing us to hear it more loudly and clearly than before. Then, we must use it as a basis for defining measurable outcomes.

Make no mistake, this is profoundly new; as it must be to address the three key challenges already outlined.

• The rise of millennials, with generation touch coming along next

• The swift proliferation of diverse interfaces that customers will choose

• The absolute necessity to NOT play catch up

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Only through this model will we adaptively embrace and exploit new channels, and benefit from all of the tactics and disciplines available for

engaging with our customers.

A thoughtfully developed Brand OS provides a methodology that:

• Supports you in understanding what is important to your customers

• Gives clear indication of where the content/message is most relevant

• Provides a structure you can use to build a careful hypothesis

• Allows you to build something and get it working

• Offers the means to measure it over time

• Affords marketing an elevated role designed to drive the business and impact sales

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What behaviors must we adopt to get us there? Foremost, we need to KNOW OUR CUSTOMER.So, where

to start?Still, embracing a customer mind set requires careful consideration and analysis of who there are, where they are, and what they are interested in.

Let’s examine how one of our clients, a major airline, endeavored to inhabit the minds of its customers. The methodology used offers a proven framework.

Really know them.

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The problem statement

The large, legacy airline had recently merged with a competitor and needed a refresh on their digital business strategy. Essentially, they were aware of a variety of problems:

• Content and customer interaction was disparate

• Audience included numerous constituencies

• Delivery vehicles for content was wildly diverse

• Numerous business lines and stakeholders were vying for attention

• Multiple systems claimed ‘truth’ for what they were trying to accomplish

• Needs-based customer experience was an imperative

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When content was created for the main website, it was very difficult to repackage, repurpose or scale it back for another delivery vehicle; such as a kiosk or flight information display. And the strategy for what content would be delivered where, had little basis in whether or not that content was actually relevant to the audience that interacted with that channel.

Here's how it went. Consider this. The loyalty program owners said when they got a product pricing idea or some other promotional element worked out, it took more than two weeks to get that content to market. The lag time created a significant loss. Every day the tactic or promotion wasn’t in play, the company lost more than a million dollars in potential revenue. On top of that, the content was being delivered to some channels that the intended audience didn’t frequent. So the relevance was often lacking.

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The solution, in hindsight, is intuitive.

KNOW the customer. Whittle the customer down to every core part, or constituency. Then work to understand what content is actually applicable and relevant to whom, and where it’s relevant.

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This chart will illustrate. Essentially, it’s a heat map that helps understand customer by type, and evaluates channel based on relevance.

AUDIENCE PUBLIC WEBSITE MOBILE SITE MOBILE APPS KIOSKSGATE INFORMATION DISPLAY (GIDS)

FLIGHT INFORMATION DISPLAY (FIDS)

FLIGHT BOOKERS

IN-PROCESS TRAVELERS

LOYALTY PROGRAM

PROSPECTIVE LOYALTY PROGRAM MEMBERS

EMPLOYEES

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This exercise revealed that a great deal of content was missing the mark. The outcome was transformative and inspired a whole new way to think about how to optimize content and content distribution.

FIDS

.COM(FR)

.COM(JP)

SOCIALSITES

Content Hub

Tech

ORG

LOYALTYPROGRAM

PARTNERSITES

KIOSKSGIDS

. MOBILE

PUBLICWEBSITE

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The next step was to build in a measurement methodology, based on the customers’ voice. This should be used as a living, breathing construct. Tangible steps are as follows:

• Collect Data

• Assimilate, digest and analyze the data

• Glean insights and define recommendations

• Set benchmarks

• Activate

The Content Hub is not just a place, but a governing framework. This framework supports and surfaces what is most important overall; what is important to a particular customer; and the associated channel(s) of relevance.

This decision structure allows distribution of the right content, to the right channels, ultimately impacting the right customers.

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The velocity of change is undeniable. With the new generations come a multitude of new attitudes and ideas. New devices and channels propel the proliferation of other highly-innovative delivery mechanisms. And, perhaps most important, our B2B customers are enthusiastic about the ride.

Embrace and Anticipate

Constant Change

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The experiences we offer must exceed expectations in terms of valuable content and channel relevance. Not to mention, the necessity for outstanding user experience design, but that’s a topic for another discussion.

For now, let’s start with the very real requirement to stop, carefully look at and consider our B2B customers.

You know, the human ones.

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Rightpoint is a design and technology services firm with core practice areas focused on helping organizations establish a long term digital strategy, design intuitive and visually engaging interfaces, and build easily maintainable and scalable public facing websites and intranets. We utilize content management solutions, collaboration sites, business intelligence interfaces, business applications, and CRM solutions to deliver these platforms.

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