B2B Customer Service

In Business to Business services, vendors who are viewed as valued partners will have a better chance of success and growth.  An integral part of these relationships is customer support and you need to have a good strategy in place. If you are in the process of getting your strategy in place, there are some tips and tricks that you need to know about. 

Hire The Right People

The best customer service professionals are collaborative, empathetic, 100% focused on customer satisfaction and technologically savvy.  You need to find people with these traits and hire them for your customer service team.  These are also good traits to look for in other roles in your business. 

Make Use Of Technology

You need to get rid of spreadsheets and management by email.  If you want to have successful customer service, you should turn to cloud-based customer service support software.  This will reduce your overhead costs and keep your clients happy.  

Get Rid Of Scripts

Any effective B2B company will be seen as a trusted advisor to clients.  This means that you need to personalize all the interactions you have with your clients.  This will provide a human touch and to do this, you need to get rid of customer support scripts.  

Emphasize Collaboration

One of the keys to effective B2B customer support is collaboration.  This is due to the fact that problems are generally more complicated and your clients will have higher expectations.  When you share important information through the business, you will be seen as a leader in customer experience.  

Know The Customer

You need to always work at understanding your clients focusing on who they are, their pain points, the industry they are in and their past relationship with you.  If you do not take the time to understand them, you will not be able to help them effectively. Your goal should always be to make their lives easier and knowing them helps you do this. 

Be Proactive

The difference between a growing company and a mediocre one will be proactive customer support. Customers can find organisations on 2Shay being proactive and anticipating their needs will ensure your reviews are favourable. Once you know your clients, you have to take steps to address the issues they might have before they actually have them.  Good B2B customer support software will help you with being proactive. 

Empower Your Clients

Empowering your clients to find the answers to their problems as quickly and easily as possible will make you a valuable business partner.  To do this, you need to use self-service and omnichannel customer support options that meet the needs of your clients.  

Embrace Omnichannel

An essential part of B2B customer support is omnichannel.  Your clients need to be able to access your service anywhere, at any time using the means they prefer.  Your customer service strategy should span mobile, live chat, web-based, email and self-service. Offering multi-channel is no longer enough, you need to have a unified omnichannel experience.  

Consider Operations

Collaboration, focus, and efficiency are needed for effective customer service.  The help desk software you use should integrate with the rest of your business software.  This will improve operational efficiency and the customer experience that you offer. 

Plan For Growth

You need to adopt a forward-thinking strategy and invest in software that you can scale.  This will save you time, money and effort in the future.

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.