The first in our series of blogs on the key pillars of Human-Centered Marketing
Honestly, I don’t believe most businesses care a whit about customer satisfaction (customer sat). Maybe if it was an app.
A whit is a small tiny part of something larger; e.g., he has not a whit of sense; he cared not a whit about money.
I think they do care deeply about the concept of customer satisfaction, both as customers and as business people. I do believe that every employee recognizes the fundamental importance and value of a satisfied customer, in purely business terms.
But actually dealing with real customers is so, well, messy. Isn’t that why we invented technology – so we could keep them at bay? 😄
The “Clarion Call” of the Whit, but Powerful
Here are some meaningful statistics from SuperOffice, B2B International and Audience:
- High customer satisfaction encourages customers to spend more and can lead to a 30-50% increase in key performance indicators, such as likelihood to renew or purchase additional products.
- Keeping existing customers satisfied costs up to 25 times less than acquiring new ones.
We intuitively know that it’s the people behind our business customers who make the decision to stick around. We also know it’s easier and more profitable to sell to longer-term customers. It’s just that somewhere along the line, the walk never got in sync with the talk.
It seems that B2B companies often struggle to effectively prioritize and measure customer satisfaction, and in turn, fail to recognize that the return on investment is big:
- Only 33% of B2B companies track customer satisfaction as a key performance indicator, despite 82% viewing it as a main objective.
- Just 14% of large B2B companies are considered truly customer-centric, with customer experience deeply ingrained in company culture.
- Many B2B firms have difficulty quantifying satisfaction, interpreting data, and developing actionable strategies based on findings.
3 Irrefutable Facts that Drive Human-Centered Marketing:
- B2B is a personal sale.
- CLV, Customer Lifetime Value, is the metric that means money.
- Increasing CLV is impossible without increasing customer sat.
Said differently, human-centered marketing is like a big hug we give to our customers – and to ourselves.
Where the Whit Hits the Road
B2B companies, if they are true stewards of their future, need to get serious about customers, customer satisfaction, and customer lifetime value. To move to this longer-term perspective, they need to do some work:
- Commit: Only about half of B2B firms are fully committed to delighting customers and making them feel valued (which I find astounding).
- Allocate Resources: Direct more resources to customer satisfaction initiatives, given its impact on retention and growth.
- Measure: B2B companies should implement more robust systems for measuring and tracking satisfaction over time.
- Take Action: Insights from satisfaction data need to be consistently translated into improvements across the organization.
A Cold Shower
In our experience, less than a third of a B2B organization’s customer base is within its ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).
The ICP is the description of the company’s best customers, the ones who will stay the longest and buy the most. Said differently, these are the company’s best chance at ongoing profitability.
On one hand, this is an enormous opportunity. First, to ensure that these customers are happy, and to identify the additional needs they have. Second, go get some of them.
On the other hand, if these ICP folks are unhappy, the whits you couldn’t part with in the first place will most definitely hit the fan.
About the Author
International author, lecturer and consultant, Scott Hornstein has worked with clients in all phases of marketing strategy, research, and implementation. He has worked with companies large and small to build profitability, by improving marketing performance, and reengineering the customer experience to boost satisfaction, referrals, and customer lifetime value.
More great articles by Scott Hornstein:
- Customer Satisfaction is the Pulse of Your Profitability
- AI’s Competitive Advantage is Not What You Think
- Marketing L&D isn’t funny. But should it be?
- Make ‘Em Laugh: The Power of Humor in L&D
- Do learning engagement and retention suffer as screens get smaller?
- Maximizing AI for Content Marketing Success in Training and Learning Tech Companies