Is boosting your product and customer experience high on the agenda this financial year? For thousands of Australian enterprises of all stripes and sizes, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.
And rightly so. In 2023, customers are a discerning lot whose expectations of the suppliers with which they deal continue to rise. Businesses and consumers alike want responsive, seamless service, at every stage of the customer journey, and they’re all too quick to punish organisations which fail to deliver.
More than 50 per cent of consumers will reduce or cease their spending with a brand after a poor interaction, according to 2022 Qualtrics research. Organisations put 6.7 per cent of their revenue at risk, on average, when they lose customers due to poor experiences, the company’s Global Consumer Study found.
In today’s straitened times, that’s a blow to the bottom line few businesses can afford to sustain.
CX comes to the B2B sector
Business buyers, too, expect to be attended to quickly and well. For many B2B suppliers, the Covid pandemic put paid to their traditional in-person sales models, forcing them to pivot to digital. While buyers haven’t been unhappy with the switch, with a surprising 43 per cent stating they’d prefer not to interact with a sales rep at all, according to Gartner, they’re not prepared to endure clunky, impersonal virtual service.
‘B2B selling in today’s world must be digital and human. A carefully designed, richly immersive digital experience where you’re accompanied by a seller rather than funnelled to one,’ should be the aim, according to Gartner Distinguished Vice President, Advisory, Brent Adamson.
Against that backdrop, it’s little surprise businesses are willing to spend big bucks to ensure they’re surprising and delighting consumers and business customers alike, every step of the way.
Billing experience is customer experience too
Well, almost every step of the way. While we’re seeing plenty of spending on digital projects elsewhere across the enterprise, too many businesses forget that revenue management contributes to, or detracts from, a positive customer experience – every bit as much as marketing, and customer and after sales service.
It’s a critical touchpoint which can make or break the way customers think about an organisation.
Inaccurate, irregular or difficult to understand billing can lower their confidence and trust in your systems and processes – and in the standard of goods and services you sell. Conversely, issuing detailed accurate, on-time invoices sends a strong message that your business is professional and well managed. Customers’ perception of your offering is likely to be elevated as a result.
Tools to make the task easy
That’s why it pays to ensure your revenue management solution isn’t an Achilles heel: a weakness that drags your otherwise strong, customer-centric operation down.
Implement a cloud solution that offers full quote to cash lifecycle support for whatever monetisation model, or models, your organisation has in place and this is unlikely to be an issue.
Instead, you’ll have a platform that enables you to generate accurate, up-to the-minute bills and implement new monetisation models with ease. If, for example, you’re looking to switch from unit to usage-based pricing, or you want to allow customers to choose between the two, you’ll find doing so a straightforward matter.
Choose a revenue management platform which connects seamlessly with your CRM system and incorporates a sophisticated data analytics function and you’ll be able to monitor and manage your customer base and extract actionable insights that allow you to improve your offering too.
Amping up every aspect of your customer experience
In today’s times, customer experience may well be the only thing that differentiates your organisation from competitors with similar product offerings and pricing structures. If you’re looking to inspire confidence and trust in your enterprise, by elevating the quality of your interactions at every stage of the customer journey, investing in a robust, flexible revenue management platform is likely to prove a very good move.
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