Holiday Customer Experience Showdown: B2B Vs. B2C

Customer experience has quickly shifted from a business buzzword to a major initiative that companies of all types and sizes are focusing on to differentiate their business from the competition. Time, focus, and budget are now mainstay dedications when it comes to creating a memorable, distinguishing experience that customers will rave about. In fact, many businesses are allocating extensive resources to set up processes and systems that support the driving goal of the ultimate customer experience.

During the holidays, many industries in the B2C realm experienced a massive influx of sales, which means a surge in customer questions and needs that runs parallel to those booming sales. However, in B2B industries, the same time of year that is marked with frenzy for B2C, is instead typically a time of focusing on strategy and growth plans for the upcoming year.

This guide will explain how both B2C and B2B experience management companies use the holiday season to expand their sales and drive high levels of customer service. We’ll also cover how customer experience endeavors differ in these industries, and what customer experience management is helpful for B2B or B2C businesses.

The holiday season is an important time for almost all businesses (in both B2C and B2B), and presents an enormous opportunity for companies to bolster their customer experience and make an impression that will drive satisfaction and profits year-round.

The approaches are taken in each industry though, and while they may have the overarching goal of improving customer experience as a sales tactic, look very different in practice.

In B2C industries that service customers by providing products or goods, the holiday season is typically one of (if not the) most important time of year. During the holiday season, consumers tend to shop more heavily as they find the perfect gifts for all the people in their lives. This burst of sales activity often accounts for a large portion (and sometimes even a majority) of the revenue a B2C business will bring in all year long

As sales rise, so do customer inquiries and needs. Creating an optimal customer experience during the holiday season means that companies need to ensure they have strong contact center systems, procedures, and staff in place to make the hectic shopping season as seamless as possible for customers.

The holiday season in B2B however, is typically marked by a slow in business deals, new client onboarding, and launches of new services or initiatives. People take time off to spend the holidays with their family, and perhaps, even support B2C companies with holiday shopping as a customer.

In the last quarter of the year, important work is often accomplished in B2B companies though. The quieter period allows businesses to take stock of all their successes and areas of improvement that have surfaced over the year. They spend time strategizing and planning carefully for the upcoming new year and find creative ways they can better serve their clients and industry.

The simple answer is that customer experience is equally important in both B2C and B2B industries, but the methods each type of company uses and what time of year they’re focused on certain initiatives is what differs most substantially.

Both B2B and B2C businesses must have a strong base of customers who are loyal to their brands and choose them time and again over the competition. B2C companies have to be able to excel under fire during the holiday season by managing large sales growth while maintaining a high level of service that customers will remember and gain their loyalty. They need customer systems, including a robust contact center solution, that allows for high-volume service with tools for top quality at the same time.

B2B customer experience management companies experience their busy period at the start of a new year when all the planning and strategizing that took place in Q4 of the previous year will begin to come to fruition through new clients, service launches, or pursuits of new goals.

You may be juggling hundreds of ideas regarding customer experience, but how can you offer a top-tier customer experience? We have established a list under the hood of customer experience management systems, including all the details to pay attention to while choosing a customer experience software. 

 It’s a CX tool that helps you manage a company’s interactions with its clients, both new and old. This customer experience system keeps records of interactions across all your customer-related areas such as automation, organizing, and synchronizing to help your business serve better to your existing customers and resolve their issues. 

Experience management software also enables a business to take direct action in reaction to what the experience data is stating. This might be through the notification and ticketing systems that notify the relevant people about the queries or problems, or by ending the loop with the customers by contacting them straightly. 

There are three main reasons; speed, volume, and complexity. If you want to offer top quality customer experience, you have complete command over all of them simultaneously. What you learn from the customer experience management platform must be turned into actions and should be implemented to get positive results. Moreover, to do CX in the best possible way you must own customer experience management tools that can work across a massive range of business areas from CX to marketing to logistics. 

Dedicated customer experience management software in place helps you in bridging over those silos and linking to the right people and to the right data at the right time strategically, resulting in increased revenue and making happier customers. 

Customer experience software is crucial for all businesses with the potential to modify every aspect of business operations. Here are some essential factors to consider while selecting one:

• Customer experience rating
• Customer experience vendors
• Customer experience suite
• Customer experience database

The right CX software will provide you with customer experience tools to set up listing posts in the perfect place and gather you customer’s feedback through live chat modules or IVR (interactive voice response). 

Big investments often come with big expectations and with customer experience management tools there’s a lot at risk. For small and medium-sized businesses changing CX software is much easier. But for enterprises, it’s an extremely important decision. There are plenty of customer experience management software vendors in the market that can help you compare and choose a customer experience management software that goes best with your business needs.