A self-service portal is a customer-facing site for support requests and important information like billing history, recurring orders, troubleshooting information, or any other details a customer needs to know. By giving users quick and easy access to these tools, businesses can reduce support tickets and decrease the time it takes for tickets to be resolved.
A knowledge management system (KMS) gives internal and external users organized access to the necessary information.
Customer journey pain points refer to points in the journey, or aspects of it, that bring up obstacles or frustrations that could put customers off. They can dictate whether a purchase is made, the sale size, frequency, and likelihood of referral. While pain points are typically focused primarily during the sales cycle, for B2B firms, a comprehensive look at the entire customer journey is necessary to mitigate pain points’ negative impacts.
The B2B customer journey is vitally important; improving it can lead to better business relationships. The best way to enhance or kickstart a quality customer journey is to establish the right B2B customer journey map. After all, one can’t get desired results without using the right blueprint, and the linear sales funnel that most businesses focus on doesn’t consider the bigger picture.
B2B customer portals ensure that every client receives efficient, personalized service. They solve many of the common challenges that leave B2B customers feeling dissatisfied with their service experience or underserved by their product as a result of their lack of customer education or troubleshooting information. The following table shows some of the most common customer challenges in the B2B space and how customer portals address them.
Customer experience (CX) personalization is vital in ensuring that each client gets the service that meets their individual needs. This involves the ethical collection of necessary information, the use of this information to break up the market into segments based on what “value” means to them, and the implementation of plans and tools to bring that value to as many customers as possible.
An effective B2B help desk is an excellent start to building a quality customer experience. For internal and client issues, help desks provide a streamlined way to submit support tickets, get assistance, and provide valuable information to the business. This is only the case, though, if it is done right. To ensure that it is effective, implement help desk best practices with proven results.
When establishing a B2B support ticketing system, one of the most critical decisions facing team leaders is determining priority levels for support tickets. Without a standard for prioritization, systems would essentially dump all support tickets into one pool, leaving teams with no clear starting point or goal. This lack of direction often leaves urgent issues unattended, causing potential security risks, major downtime, and customer dissatisfaction.
Tracking a service department’s workflow and monitoring the progression of ticket-handling steps is essential to identifying potential customer service efficiencies. Disorganization within this process often leads to excessive response times. Company leaders that manage the ticket lifecycle effectively can maintain an accurate overview of resolved tickets, and identify the stages of the ticket lifecycle for those still in progress.
As businesses grow, providing on-demand customer service responses can begin to feel a bit overwhelming. When an increased volume of general inquiries is compounded by specific requests that require time-consuming replies, the backlog of customer service tickets can lead to frustrated buyers and a stressed-out service team.
