I was recently in Houston, Texas, speaking at a global leadership conference. They say everything is bigger in Texas, so if you are in business-to-business (B2B) sales or marketing, I have some big and important news to share.
B2B and B2C are converging.
The latest research, discussed at the Adobe Summit 2019, suggests that B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) experiences are converging. Whether we are talking about a seven-figure request for proposal or a small purchase for an office, B2B buyer journeys are beginning to look very similar to those of B2C consumers. For example, B2B buyers expect you to know what they want and deliver more than just supplier value.
I know what you are thinking: “We sell to B2B. None of this user experience stuff applies to us. We compete on price or availability. We know our buyers, and our buyers know us!” Well, things are changing and B2B buyers’ expectations are evolving.
For years, many of us have thought of B2B buyers as rational, interdependent and loyal, and B2C consumers as emotional, independent and fickle. I’m now seeing B2B purchasers becoming more emotional, independent and fickle, while B2C consumers are becoming more rational, interdependent and loyal. But why?
Where are these B2B buyer expectations coming from?
We often think of B2B buyers as this different group of “business decision-makers,” but it is important to remember that they are also B2C buyers in their personal lives.
After a day in the office, many of your B2B buyers will catch an Uber to go home. Uber will know where to pick them up and where their home is. Once they get home, they might order dinner on a food delivery app, and that app will recommend restaurants based on their preferences and make reordering sushi from their favorite place simple. And after dinner, they may watch a movie or a show on a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon Prime, which will suggest recommendations and make it easy for them to resume exactly where they left off.
We are living in an experiential economy where people don’t buy products or services. People buy experiences. And they vote for good experiences with their dollars. In fact, research has found that many consumers are willing to pay more for a good experience.
Everyone wants a good experience, and once we’ve experienced it, we’re more likely to come back for more. At the same time, bad experiences turn us away. We will avoid repeating them, often seeking good experiences elsewhere.
User experience (UX) is not only about customer acquisition. It is also about customer retention. As we all know, it is significantly more expensive to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one. Retention is the new growth.
What does this mean for your B2B website experience?
Now, let’s compare this to your website experience. How does it stand up in comparison to the consumer websites and apps many of us use and love -- Uber, Amazon, Netflix, etc.?
I find that most B2B websites are too organization-centric, suffer from poor information findability and discoverability, and are too fragmented, too cluttered and too confusing to users. We see this all the time in user testing: B2B buyers who are frustrated, failing to complete basic tasks and struggling to find rudimentary information necessary to do their jobs.
You spend years building relationships with B2B decision-makers, but if you treat them as strangers when they come to your website, you are pushing them away. The UX that your B2B buyers experience at work versus what they experience at home can be your tailwind or a headwind.
Make every experience epic for everyone.
How do you deal with this paradigm shift? The solution is very simple. Remember the four Es: Make every experience epic for everyone. Easier said than done? Here are three steps to get you started:
1. Interview Your Customers
Begin by doing qualitative research on your customers. Have an outside, unbiased agency interview your customers. Don’t pretend you know all the answers. You don’t! Remember: You are not the customer. Don’t fall into the trap of an opinion-driven design. This is how many projects fail.
2. Develop Personas And CJMs
Invest in developing buyer personas and customer journey mapping (CJM) through qualitative and quantitative research. Focus on documenting common steps and tasks that your users take on the website, paying special attention to their goals and what could get in their way. With personas and journeys documented, your team can find alignment and have a point of reference to ensure that what you end up building will be truly customer-centric.
3. Test With Real Users
Test early, and test often with real users (your customers or users fitting your personas). When you test your solutions with real users, you can catch and fix many more issues before your website is finalized. This saves time and money, as well as prevents embarrassments from happening once the new or redesigned experience is launched.
Ask yourself: What would be the cost of getting it wrong and losing even 5%, 10% or 20% of business because of misalignment with your B2B users? Remember, good UX can lead to good business, but bad UX can lead to bad business. Which one would you rather?
