Journey Mapping for Improved SAP B2B Customer Experience

The term “customer experience” exploded in popularity in the past few years. The concept of customer experience— making it easy for customers to do business with you— is nothing new. Good business has always relied on knowing your customers and catering to their needs.

However, customer experience (CX) has taken on new dimensions as B2B relationships migrate to the digital realm. The ability to collect customer trends and insights through data and respond to them has increased personalization at an unprecedented level.

Customer journey mapping is critical to improving your overall CX. If you understand where your customers meet and interact with your company, you can tailor their experience resulting in increased loyalty and ultimately higher demand for your products and services.

Here’s what you need to know about CX, customer journey mapping, and how you can catch up to build your business.

Why CX is Crucial to Business Growth

CX no longer sets companies apart from their competitors. Customers have come to expect an experience tailored to fit their needs. Organizations have to consider CX to remain viable and competitive:

• 75% of customers are more likely to purchase from a company that knows their name and purchase history and recommends products based on their preference.
• 84% of companies that improve their CX report an increase in revenue.
• 73% of consumers say a good experience is crucial in influencing their brand loyalties.

It’s no wonder, then, that Adobe’s Annual Digital Trends Report found that businesses place CX as the most exciting B2B opportunity over content, data-driven, video, and social media marketing. Studies show that investing in CX has the potential to double revenue within 36 months.

Efforts to improve CX, then, can have an incredible impact on the success of your business. While companies may understand this in theory, the challenge is in finding practical ways to implement changes. How can you help improve your customer’s interactions with your company and brand? Customer journey mapping is a critical skill to improve your CX.

What is Customer Journey Mapping?

The customer journey with your business and your products is unique to your company. The more you understand how your customers come to you, and when they interact with your business, the more you can create an experience tailored for them.

Customer journey mapping allows you to understand your customer’s journey and needs. It requires taking the time to dissect your customer’s touchpoints and channels of interaction with your business, possibly even at a persona level. Data-driven tools allow you to optimize your use of the channels and enhance these touchpoints to create the best possible experience for the customer.

While it can have a positive impact on your customer experience, the concept of customer journey mapping can be overwhelming to a growing business. It takes time and focus to do this on top of everything else going on in the business. It requires increasing the investment in digitalization. Where could you possibly find the time to pinpoint all the touchpoints let alone implement the technologies to sense and optimize them?

How ERPs Can Elevate Your CX

In implementing SAP Business One, organizations have already undergone a detailed mapping of their processes. The quote to cash and customer service processes, for example, are templates for customer touchpoints. For every marketing document in SAP, there is a physical touchpoint upstream and potentially multiple touchpoints where a workflow is involved. A business can leverage this analysis that has already occurred.

Just a few examples where touchpoints are upstream of the ERP…:

• Reviewing and Paying Invoices
• Quote Requests/Processing
• Order Requests/Processing
• Orders Requests based on Previous Orders
• Reviewing Order Shipments
• Returns Requests/Processing
• Placing/Tracking Service Requests
• Your company news, updates, announcements, notifications, and alerts.

Your organization does not have to spend incredible amounts of time searching to find all of its customer touchpoints. Your ERP provides a natural blueprint for you.

Why Mobile is Critical for Your CX

While understanding the customer journey is crucial, optimizing it means far more than making it easy to read or access online. As CX continues to evolve, mobile becomes a prominent component in how customers experience your brand.

In the past, other factors could offset a bad mobile experience with your company. That is no longer true. Mobile phones can become essential to the way most people do business. According to Statista, 50% of all internet traffic in 2019 was mobile. People are on the move and no longer chained to the desk. Brands need to keep up with their customers’ mobile needs if they want to have a positive CX. This is just as true for B2B customer experience in all industry sectors and points in the supply chain as it is for B2C.

In 2020, though, the mobile experience’s importance took a sharp turn upward before many companies had a chance to keep up. Few people foresaw the current environment that has forced many people to work remotely. Who knew in January that most people in most countries would be forced to work from home in March and for the foreseeable future?

While mobility and mobile features were once about the convenience factor, they have suddenly become indispensable.

Which companies are in a position to cope with this new environment? The business that makes their daily B2B customer transactions and interactions available via whatever device the customer has in their hand, whether smartphone, tablet, or laptop.

How to Catch Up on the Mobile Necessity: Versago

While businesses that are already equipped with a customer journey map for mobile business are ahead of the curve, organizations that are behind do have a chance to catch up, though. Within the SAP Business One global marketplace, there is a portal application called Versago, which can be installed and operational in one day. As a web and mobile platform integrated with SAP Business One, Versago provides a channel for optimizing an unending list of customer touchpoints, elevating Customer Experience. Within a day or two of installing Versago, your customers can access the information and data input they need to easily and quickly conduct business with you.

The effort put into making it easier for customers to interact with your organization will more than pay for itself in the future. SAP Business One and Versago make it fast and feasible to make your company easy to do business with and more profitable than ever.

To learn more about how Versago can take your CX to the next level, now, in 2020, a time when your business most needs it, schedule a customized demo with a Third Wave expert today!