In a digitally connected world, your sales team is not enough to add value to the customer. It is time for the marketing team to step in and share the responsibility. A survey by Forrester revealed that B2B marketing enterprises find it challenging to succeed even with highly-skilled employees and innovative teams.
Marketers need to put more emphasis on creating long-term relationships with their customers in order to improve client retention and revenue growth. As a consequence, the focus should shift away from the product’s features and advantages and onto its outcomes. Early in the interaction, and farther down the sales funnel, emphasize the value of your product or service.
Also you shouldn’t wait for potential customers to contact you. Marketers have made a science beyond figuring out how to use various go-to-market strategies and triggers based on the target customer, their familiarity with the brand, and the product itself. In order to improve & expand on customer interactions, you look at the possibility of employing extra channels to broaden the ways in which you communicate with your consumers.
According to a recent McKinsey & Company B2B worldwide study, more B2B organizations want omnichannel sales in their buying behavior. The B2B trend between in-person sales, remote-human engagement, and digital self-serve is intriguing to see.
What is Hybrid Customer Engagement?
eCommerce and traditional brick-and-mortar retail are merging to create a hybrid shopping experience that includes both online and in-store purchases.
Customers may now purchase things online and pick them up at a nearby shop, which is an excellent illustration of the hybrid experience. Additionally, many companies now enable consumers to return things they purchased online to a local shop, where they may get a refund or even cashback. Even in-store mobile self-checkout has lately been used, and curbside pickup went mainstream as an effect of COVID-19.
Customer data may be shared across channels in addition to brand message, marketing techniques, and product information in these hybrid experiences because of a well-integrated ecommerce strategy and solution. A more seamless and frictionless consumer experience is now possible for organizations.
Customers may search for product data such as price or in-store availability using their account information, which can be accessed by store staff or brought up on other devices.
In the end, it’s up to the customers to decide when and how to go on with their trip. In today’s world, convenience is an essential part of the shopping experience for everyone.
Here are five opportunities that will help your brand improve hybrid customer engagement:
1. Collect Customer Information From All Platforms
There are always going to be disparities in the data you acquire from numerous sources. All the marketing and nonmarketing touchpoints were identified, and then the ideal customer profile information was developed to be collected. All of our marketing channels—webinars, trade exhibitions, document downloads, and email—now use the same forms. All of our sales and customer service representatives were instructed to collect and report on the same set of basic data. As a result, we were able to establish a structure for organizing consumer`s data and identifying the sources from which we obtained it. It also sets the stage for a better understanding of customers.
2. Pre-sale And Post-Sale Digital Experiences Should be Separated
A typical customer’s journey begins with a consumer researching an issue, identifying a solution, and then making a purchase to solve that problem. To ensure client’s satisfaction, post-sales and customer’s service contacts are common. Customer’s exploration and learning should be separated from customer’s support encounters from the beginning.
Sharing information and trips between the two don’t need to be one-size-fits-all. People don’t want to waste time searching for something that doesn’t apply to their situation. The pre-and post-sales experiences are required to provide different routes to connect to one another, while also taking into consideration the omnichannel nature of buying possibilities. As an example, in the pre-sale experience, there were hints that brought a client to post-sale if they were interested in learning more about installation and configuration options, as well as connecting them to sales and partners.
3. Develop Customized Experiences For Every Channel
It’s no longer adequate to just send automated emails, chatbots, and generic messages with a [first name], [last name].” In order to participate in B2B digital interaction, you need to know what your customers are looking for, and what they are currently working on so that you can better match your products to their needs.
It was because of this, that we recommended a client to work together with our sales teams to develop account-based portals that can send relevant material to certain types of customers. Thee communication was done with those accounts via both, marketing and sales. In addition, we encourage clients to do non-essential transactions through eCommerce rather than relying on personal contact with members of our sales staff, even if we feature them on our website with individual profiles. As a result, clients are able to participate on their own terms and schedule. In order to better understand the interests of buyers in various sites, we are constantly adapting our strategies.
4. Strength of Digital Education Apart From Face-to-Face Seminars
Traditional methods of educating clients about our product line included classroom lectures, as well as online seminars and webinars. These encounters were supposed to be used as a springboard for in-person sales activities. While working on a project for a B2B client, we paid close attention to the Gartner suggestion that “information increases buying ease and high-quality sales.” While providing useful content and cutting-edge technological education via this platform, we also promote omnichannel sales, including both, online and offline channels. As an additional bonus, this platform has become a strong listening tool for us to understand more about clients’ interests and intent.
5. Upgrade Your Data Analytics platforms to Understand Customer Better
Omnichannel sales necessitated a thorough rethinking of our marketing data and consumer behavior. We had to take into account not just the marketing tactics, but also the sales mix, and search for insights and leading indications as well as indicators themselves. Our analytics and marketing activities have changed to cover sales, inside sales, and eCommerce. We are now able to track customer and competitor activity across all of our sales channels thanks to new technology. It’s also helping us develop new models for customer intent and methods to signal inside sales to prospective important clients early rather than waiting for the typical marketing qualified lead to be created.
To keep up with the changing dynamics of omnichannel commerce, we need to be alert. Ultimately, the success of our clients is what counts most. As marketers, our job is to meet their immediate needs, while also keeping in mind the location of our next meeting.
Concluding Note
In the end, customer engagement is about delivering value during every step of the customer journey. If you’re able to connect deeply with the customer, you win. We, at Cooperative Computing, have customer champions that’ll help you engage immersively with the customer. Let’s talk!
