1. Design All Your Customer Interactions For B2B Success
Webinar
Design All Your Customer Interactions For B2B Success
Peter O’Neill, Vice President, Principal Analyst
December 12, Call in at 10:55 a.m. Eastern time

2. Agenda Customer experience does matter in B2B.
You must consider all potential interactions between your businesses.
Developing a business case for B2B CX
Voice-of-the-customer programs are a design foundation.
Take an “outside-in” approach to B2B CX design.

3. Agenda Customer experience does matter in B2B.
You must consider all potential interactions between your businesses.
Developing a business case for B2B CX
Voice-of-the-customer programs are a design foundation.
Take an “outside-in” approach to B2B CX design.

4. There are at least four myths about B2B CX
Customer experience is a consumer thing.
Switching costs make customer experience irrelevant.
Complex B2B relationships dilute the notion of a customer
experience.
Source: alibaba.com
Partners control the experience, so B2B companies don’t
have to care.
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 4

5. Why CX matters for B2B marketers
The customer now “owns” your brand based on their perceptions.
Customer experience redefines the funnel; customers tell your story for you, generating leads and brand awareness.
Customer experience is critical for growth ambitions, not just for retention, cross-sell, and upsell.
Many B2B tech companies are B2B2C; it behooves them to think like their B2C customers.
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 5

6. This thought experiment is already a reality
Customer has been running XYZ’s business application for many years. As it is considered a mature system, the company switched to a third-party support provider.
John
(hired to replace retiree Phil)
Uses XYZ application and is unsatisfied with performance
Complains to supervisor
Tweets his frustration
with XYZ
Researches on XYZ’s website for more information
Supervisor tells John “No change is possible.”
Receives phone call from XYZ sales rep to sell him same software again
Receives lead “nurturing” s from marketing organization of ABC
Supervisor reports problem to service desk (SD).
John’s peers retweet his frustration, tweet at John about SaaS alternative, ABC.
Line of visibility
SD agent responds: “XYZ works as designed; no change is possible.”
XYZ’s L2RM system qualifies John as a hot lead due to website activity.
Listening platform of ABC spots John as a potential lead.
Marketing automation platform issues .
Source: Upcoming Forrester report
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

7. Agenda Customer experience does matter in B2B.
You must consider all potential interactions between your businesses.
Developing a business case for B2B CX
Voice-of-the-customer programs are a design foundation.
Take an “outside-in” approach to B2B CX design.

8. Customer experience now involves all company silos
Marketing, sales, product, support, billing
Phone
Partner
Digital
In-person
Back office, IT, ops, shared services, corporate
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 8

9. Cross-touchpoint CX drives need for new capabilities
Source: August 10, 2011, “The Emergence Of Customer Experience Management Solutions” Forrester report
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 9

10. Caterpillar’s CX life cycle identifies 12 touchpoints
Source: March 14, 2012, “How B2B Firms Improve Customer And Partner Experience” Forrester report
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 10

11. Agenda Customer experience does matter in B2B.
You must consider all potential interactions between your businesses.
Developing a business case for B2B CX
Voice-of-the-customer programs are a design foundation.
Take an “outside-in” approach to B2B CX design.

12. Who is responsible?
“In the absence of a customer experience role, I see myself as owning the customer experience.”
Katy Keim
CMO, Lithium

13. The L2RM process includes retention and expansion
Lead-to-revenue management (L2RM)
Opportunity
Lead
nurturing
Sales
process
Awareness
origination
Initial
revenue
Customer life-cycle revenue
Customer
retention and
expansion
Source: December 22, 2010, “Lead-To-Revenue Management Transforms Tech Marketing” Forrester report
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

14. Customer support/service staff receive CX signals, but they do not do marketing
Focus on problem fixing.
“User misunderstandings” prevail.
Profit center economics.
Feedback is only collected in context.
Define what we mean by vehicles
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

15. Developing a business case for CX program investments
Start with cost avoidance (self-service support).
Assign a value to customer loyalty or customer lifetime value; it helps to quantify the business risk of churn.
Define the value of channel partner loyalty.
Model the effect of these customer experience benefits:
Incremental purchases from current customers
Retained revenue as a result of lower churn
New sales driven by customer advocacy
Ultimately, a CX program must be executive-led and enterprisewide to drive changes in the company culture, employee behavior, and even product development.
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

16. Agenda Customer experience does matter in B2B.
You must consider all potential interactions between your businesses.
Developing a business case for B2B CX
Voice-of-the-customer programs are a design foundation.
Take an “outside-in” approach to B2B CX design.

17. Naming a chief customer officer is a common response
Chief customer officers by industry:
More than 50% of CCOs are in B2B sectors.
Source: Harley Manning, Kerry Bodine, and Josh Bernoff, Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business, New Harvest, 2012
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 17

18. The voice of the customer comes in several different flavors
Source: April 11, 2011, “Executive Q&A: Voice Of The Customer Programs” Forrester report
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 18

19. A CCO should be senior and empowered
Not only . . .
An escalation repository for internal and external complaints (“find and fix”)
Interested in the largest customers
But also . . .
A member of the executive management team and willing to get things changed, not fixed
Addresses the root causes, not symptoms
Much of B2B business is done through channels, so both channel partners and indirect customers are imperative.
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 19

20. Voice-of-the-customer programs require six basic components
Source: April 11, 2011, “Executive Q&A: Voice Of The Customer Programs” Forrester report
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 20

21. Adobe’s physical customer-listening post
Source: Adobe Systems (
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 21

22. EMC’s total customer experience program
Source: March 22, 2011, “B2B Case Study: EMC Puts The Voice Of The Customer At The Center Of Its Business” Forrester report
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 22

23. Agenda Customer experience does matter in B2B.
You must consider all potential interactions between your businesses.
Developing a business case for B2B CX
Voice-of-the-customer programs are a design foundation.
Take an “outside-in” approach to B2B CX design.

24. An “outside-in” approach to B2B marketing
Respond to .
Link to web page.
Register for webinar.
Attend webinar.
Answer sales call.
Product marketer
Interactive marketer
Event team
SME
Sales rep
Understand the desired CX (= buyer’s journey).
Design content and content delivery to the buyer’s journey.
Design internal systems to optimize the CX.
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 24

25. An “outside-in” design for internal systems
Respond to .
Link to web page.
Register for webinar.
Attend webinar.
Answer sales call.
Product marketer
Interactive marketer
Event team
SME
Sales rep
Line of visibility
CRM
Content management engine
Account and territory def.
Satisfaction tool
Lead management tool
Corporate marketing
Sales ops
Customer service
Lead scoring algorithm
CMO
Product marketing
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 25

26. Your CX audit or the VoC feedback identifies room for improvement
Respond to .
Link to web page.
Register for webinar.
Attend webinar.
Answer sales call.
Product marketer
Interactive marketer
Event team
SME
Sales rep
Line of visibility
CRM
Content management engine
Account and territory def.
Satisfaction tool
Lead management tool
Corporate marketing
Sales ops
Customer service
Lead scoring algorithm
CMO
Product marketing
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 26

27. The customer experience continues
Orders router software
Tech arrives to install.
Installation fails.
Calls customer service
Told there’s no solution
Sales rep
Charter tech
Charter tech
Phone agent
Phone agent
Line of visibility
Sales rep gets commission.
Scheduling system
Third-party HW policy
CRM system
Third-party HW policy
Comp policy
Legal dept.
Legal dept.
Human resources
Finance
© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 27

29. Peter O’Neill
blogs.forrester.com/peter_oneill