The “consumerization” movement is shifting the sales process out of the control of the seller as enterprise buyers begin to mimic consumer shopping behaviors, according to new research from global business technology solutions and managed services provider Avanade.
Due to this shift, the research shows that the value of the customer experience is now more important than price to business and IT decision-makers. What’s more, business decision-makers are willing to pay 30% more for improved customer experiences.
Dave Nelson, Avanade’s Global lead - CRM service line, told Loyalty 360 that the research confirmed some suspicions.
“First, it confirmed that at the enterprise level B2B buyers are seriously mimicking consumer shopping behaviors,” Nelson said. “We’ve seen extensive research from multiple sources from potential suppliers and products happening at all levels of organizations, not just a procurement function.”
Businesses no longer have control over information shared about their products or services, Nelson said, adding that 61% of business decision-makers report third-party sites and feedback from business partners, industry peers or social channels is more important than conversations with a company’s sales teams when making a purchasing decision.”
Nelson offered his biggest takeaway from the research.
“For me, personally, having been in the CRM space for a long time, I always suspected the customer experience influenced buyer behavior, and influenced buyer loyalty,” he said. “I never believed that in a B2B context that it could trump product price and performance. Our research showed that even in B2B, price is not the top factor. B2B customers willing to pay up to 30% more for a superior customer experience.”
Traditionally, Nelson said B2B buyers didn’t quite have that leeway -- especially in formalized procurement organizations.
“By policy or by practice, allowing that customer experience to have a larger influence in the purchase decisions should be a big wakeup call to companies out there trying to penetrate various buyer segments,” Nelson explained. “We are seeing the value of these customer relationships are really defined by the complete experience over time as well as at the time of purchase.”
Customer experiences can work the opposite way as well.
“You can have a very positive customer experience that cannot necessarily translate into long-term value,” Nelson said. “It’s the culmination of experiences rather than the individual transactions. We’re seeing investment in that culture of customer-centricity.”
Nelson said there certainly has been a mindset shift in the B2B community.
“This research was not just CMOs and not just procurement people,” he said. “It shows there is definitely something that’s changing out there.”
According to the research, 70% of respondents believe technology will primarily replace human interaction with customers in the next 10 years. Anticipating this change, businesses are making new technology investments, changing business processes and redesigning organizational roles. More than 80% of companies have changed at least one business process in the past three years to better interact with customers.
Companies making these changes are experiencing increases in customer loyalty (61%), revenue (60%) and customer base (60%).
Avanade surveyed 1,000 C-level executives, business unit leaders, and IT decision-makers in 19 countries across more than 12 industries.