You’ve given them countless product demos. Made executive trips to their headquarters. Answered their questions on Saturday mornings. Invited their European team out to dinner. Your team put in the work and finally won the deal. Congratulations! Now, is it really on to the next one? For sales yes, but for your entire company it definitely shouldn’t be. More companies are spending additional time and resources on improving the B2B post-sale experience of their customers. Why?

As technology continues to move forward, more companies are seeing an influx of international customers that didn’t exist a decade ago. For many companies based in the United States, a large percentage of their new international customers are from the United Kingdom (aka “the UK”). Made up of four countries – England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland – the UK may share a common language with the US, but there are some notable cultural differences.

With more companies creating and expanding their customer success teams than ever before, it’s critical that leadership focuses on the right metrics to accurately gauge their work. Remember, this team isn’t just an extension of customer support, so common metrics like average ticket close time will fail at accurately representing their contribution to your company.

Great companies have always cared about their customers. When a customer pays for a service or offering, it’s up to the company to make sure what they paid for meets their needs. In the past, this may have meant a follow-up call or two, and then the company moved on. However, as the B2B customer experience evolved, a single phone call is no longer good enough. Now, companies have entire “customer success” teams that focus solely on ensuring the customer is happy and remains that way.

The difference between a B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) customer is night and day. To most B2C companies, customers are a dime a dozen. A B2C company isn’t focused on their current customers nearly as much as acquiring new ones. Their own customers know this, and thus the expectations for many B2C products are so low that companies in this industry rarely emphasize the priorities of their customers.

Can you truly tell how a customer feels about your business? There are many different tactics that attempt to acquire this information, such as customer reviews and NPS (net promoter score), which may or may not provide an accurate assessment of overall satisfaction. Did you catch them on a bad day when they left an NPS rating? Did they write an odd review as someone was looking over their shoulder?

For support agents, ending the conversation with a customer can be a mixed bag. With some customers, the conversation just flows naturally, and a clear end happens organically. Other times, acquiring and sharing information can be a painful process. You’re never quite sure if the customer is ready to end the conversation and you’re saying too much, or if you haven’t said enough and the customer will be unhappy.

There’s no way around it – in the modern business world, companies need data from all areas of their business to keep up. One industry that hasn’t typically been at the forefront of the data revolution is customer support. However, with many businesses now realizing that support isn’t always a cost center (and can sometimes even pay for itself) the demand for actionable data has been on the rise.

Seeing a business grow in front of your eyes is exciting. You’ve got a product or service people love, and you’re getting new customers all the time. However, with this excitement often comes growing pains. Five customer support agents may no longer be enough, and it’s time to expand the team to double digits to meet the demand of tickets and phone calls.

B2B (business-to-business) customers are becoming more demanding. After experiencing some of the more modern support methods in their everyday B2C (business-to-consumer) lives, they are increasingly expecting B2B companies to keep up. However, there is no one right answer for which channels a B2B company should offer for customer support. Below are the core customer support channels for the B2B industry, alongside specific reasons why companies offer them and why they choose not to.