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by Mary Salgado

Updated:

Feb 27, 2021

Differences between B2B and B2C Customer Support

Table of Content

    To provide outstanding customer service, you must first think about your business’s nature and what consumers expect. Customer service shapes your client’s impression of a product and business and plays a crucial role in your company’s enduring success.

    B2B refers to connection or sales between a business and another business, while B2C refers to interaction or sales between a company and individual customers. B2B is more complicated than B2C because it involves dealing with big organizations, communicating with separate teams, constant analysis, and risks.

    Differences between B2B and B2C Customer Support

    B2C Customers:

    Speedy Resolution

    In B2C customer service, you need to offer support to an individual. It would be best if you strive to provide an excellent experience to the individual. Valuing the customer’s time is the most important thing that any company would do to enhance their customer experience. It must be short, sweet, and straight to the point – having an efficiently trained answering service team to ensure the customers receive solutions at lightning speed. Customer service agents should try to resolve the issue in a single reply and on the first call. It will significantly improve their FCR (First Call Resolution) metric and be a good indicator of overall customer satisfaction.

    Mobile and Self-service

    Modern customers want to do most of their tasks on the go. It will be a pleasant experience if they have resolved their issues while on the move. B2C customer service moves towards a more independent and self-service approach that includes a mobile app, website, voice response system, or online chat. SEO-friendly knowledge base articles also play an essential role. It is to help customers find the right reviews and answers they need freely.  

    By offering mobile-friendly options like social media contact points and live chat, customers will find it easy to make a complaint from their mobile devices. Companies that are reachable via mobile make you more desirable among B2C customers. The goal is to help customers help themselves.

    Social Media Savvy

    People now are very socially-active and are very vocal about their experiences online. Take advantage of social media channels to create unforgettable experiences for B2C customers. You can make your business visible on social channels so that customers can reach out to you with their queries. Social media platforms encourage them to reach out to your brand, knowing they’ll get a quick response (Manychat/chatbots). Efficient customer service is key to good marketing. With social media, your customers will sing your praises. By effectively leveraging word-of-mouth, in effect, would invite potential customers. A satisfied customer with a positive product review would give more value to your products and services. To save company's resource, you can hire a social media virtual assistant to manage and monitor these channels effectively.

    B2B Customers:

    A Dedicated Support

    B2B companies have fewer and more critical customers. These customers are of high-value. These companies’ products and services are often large and complicated, so each interaction has a more significant effect on profits. The consequences of losing a single account can be much more meaningful for a B2B company. That is why customer service plays an essential role in B2B companies.

    You should offer B2B customers extraordinary customer service with well-tailored and more in-depth support – a dedicated team or an account manager who can assist them from time to time. The account manager should have the ability to predict needs to exceed expectations. By ensuring that such a team exists, we can be assured of improved customer retention and strengthen your brand’s reputation. It is all about creating loyal, long-lasting, and healthy relationships with the customer.

    More Personalized Service

    B2B customers often spend substantial amounts of money on their partner companies. That is why they expect the quality of service they receive should match their investment.

    Excellent customer service can be an attractive selling point for many B2B customers, which is every B2B company’s goal. It would be best to provide fast responses and satisfactory solutions, and a personalized experience.

    Any decision made from a B2B interaction can cost or save a company millions of dollars. To stand out from the competition, B2B companies prioritize first-class customer service, invest in skilled support teams, and communicate the customer experience’s importance to every agent. A dedicated answering service company that employs a professional customer service team will do the job right.

    These customer service agents are experts in addressing complex and intricate issues. These business services online that handle answering service jobs incorporate technology (help desk software) that allows them to record all customer interactions or tickets that keep data all in one place. These data will help their customer service representatives with all the necessary information at their fingertips anytime they need it. It will also help them avoid duplicating resolutions and ensure that every issue is tackled by agents as efficiently as possible.

    Enabled Technology

    Employees and owners prefer options such as live chat, video conferencing, and email. But aside from the TO-GO methods of communications, B2B businesses also choose conventional methods such as email support as it is considered a dependable form of communication among companies.

    These answering service companies that handle customer service requirements for B2B companies are continually looking for a greater variety of web applications to use on a day-to-day basis. And can be integrated with their existing systems. Integrations allow seamless communications between businesses and keep track of productivity. Services like Zapier can seamlessly connect to apps like Excel, Trello, Asana, and more. This way, companies can send complaints on the go, keep track of their complaints, and resolve them on time.

    B2B also relies on external marketing strategies such as social media. Adding different content, informative videos, or blog posts would aid engagement and define your brand as authentic and trustworthy.

    To Wrap Up

    First-class customer service is crucial to the advancement of every business. B2B and B2C companies have different needs, so you should make sure to provide the ideal customer support to every kind of business.

    When a B2C support agent speaks with a customer, they only have to worry about finding a resolution and make that one person a happy customer as quickly as possible – making every call a lasting memorable experience.

    Expectations of B2B companies are high as they spend more. B2B providers need to have a deeper understanding of their customers. It would be best to have a dedicated team for B2B companies to provide personalized solutions and maintain a healthy long-term relationship.

    Enlisting the expertise of answering service companies that train efficient and professional customer service agents plays a crucial role in building an excellent reputation among your potential customers and vital in retaining valued customers in the long run.

    Master Both B2B & B2C Customer Service

    Understand the unique requirements of each customer type and ensure lasting satisfaction and loyalty. Stand out from the crowd.

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