Why manufacturers should prioritise customer experience

Traditionally, manufacturers could stay competitive by offering the most innovative products or using the latest technology. While these still play a role in ensuring your business stays ahead of the competition, more and more customers (particularly in B2B) are also looking for convenient experiences.

With over 60% of manufacturers prioritising customer experiences, here’s why you should follow suit:

1. Improved customer loyalty
2. Improved productivity and overall cost efficiency
3. Better quality products and services

1. Improved customer loyalty

Customer loyalty in the manufacturing industry has become a crucial building block to boosting sales and increasing retention. . With the industry becoming more saturated by new products and entrants, you can stand out by offering convenient experiences from the start of your customers journey to post-purchase.

For example, can your customers easily find the information they need as soon as they access your website? Are your product details up to date? Can your customers easily get in contact with your teams if they’re experiencing an issue?

By offering convenience and relevant information at the right place, at the right time, this won’t just help retain your current customers. It’ll help you attract new ones too.

Additionally, more than 25% of customers wish that manufacturers would know them better when they return to a business, which rests on your ability to personalise your interactions.

Here are a few ways you can do this:

• Use customer data and predictive analytics – by understanding where your customers are at in their buying journey, you’ll be able to better predict their next interactions and become more efficient with your targeting capabilities
• Implement AI on your website – intelligent AI such as chatbots will remember any previous conversations and purchase data, so when a customer connects to one of your representatives, they won’t need to repeat the process of explaining their issue/enquiry

• Automated order updates – offering automated updates regarding a customer’s order status (including stock delays and progress) means you can maintain trust even when your customer service representatives are busy

Find out more about how you can build loyalty in the manufacturing industry here.

2. Improved productivity and overall cost efficiency

You’ll likely already have support teams and technical experts to help customers find exactly what they’re after. This approach may be working fine, but imagine if you could make this product information available digitally.

If your customers can easily find information such as product descriptions, accurate stock levels, product configuration functionalities and customisable pricing, your representatives will have more time back to focus on more fulfilling work instead, such as:

• Handling more complex queries
• Further personalising customer engagement

Here’s another example. If your CRM system is fully integrated within your technology stack, you’ll gain a birds-eye view over your data, which in turn will:

• Eliminate data siloes and duplication – office-based teams can easily access accurate information from your warehouses as your data will be streamlined across your organisation
• Minimise manual work – reduces the chances of human error and allows you to quickly analyse customer information, improving your teams’ efficiency
• Facilitate team collaboration - your sales team can easily access key information about customers to close deals, and identify additional sales opportunities (e.g. maintenance or extended warranties) after their initial purchase. To add, nearly 55% of manufacturers are driven towards customer experience projects to boost revenue from value-added services

3. Better quality products and services

Improved customer experience can indirectly impact your product quality. When you have a better understanding of how your customers are reacting towards your offerings, you can then identify where to enhance your new product development process and quality.

Gain an in-depth understanding of your customer needs by:

• Collecting customer feedback – reviews on your website or surveys post-purchase will pinpoint where you can improve your service, as well as offering credibility for new customers when they’re looking to purchase a particular product from your site

• Ensuring your employees can easily access your CRM system – this will allow other representatives to easily see accurate customer information such as order history, website activity and feedback on your products
• Ensuring adding data to the CRM system is simple to do - autofill can be used for suggestions or recommendations, encouraging your employees to keep the system updated and accurate

Explore the current CX challenges facing manufacturers and how you can overcome them

B2B customer expectations are evolving, with their buying journeys and expectations becoming more B2C-like.

By focusing on improving your customer experience in the manufacturing industry, you can better meet their needs, helping you expand your sales opportunities and remain competitive in the marketplace.

In our exclusive report with Copperberg, we explore the top challenges facing manufacturers today when looking to improve their customer experience efforts, as well as:

• The driving forces behind a successful CX project
• What’s next for CX-focused manufacturers
• The technologies and solutions available that support CX initiatives

Get your copy below.