“Hey Alain, ABC inc. made us an absolutely fantastic offer, really hard to turn down. Here are the details. We would love to keep working with you but is there something you can do to match their offer? »
Is this the kind of reaction you would like your client to have before they leave for another supplier? If you think your client is satisfied with your products or your services, it’s enough, you may be surprised!
Satisfaction and loyalty are not necessarily closely related in B2B. The more competitive the market, the more we control spending. The more we control spending, the less loyal we are to a supplier, therefore, the more we compare! In the best case scenario, you want to at least be the measuring stick in a contract renewal. How about being in a situation where your client gives you the details of the competitor’s attractive offer?
Small emotions…
Start with a little formula: V = B-C, where V is the Value, B are the Benefits and C is for Constraints.
This equation is well suited to your service offer, but this time, let’s focus on creating an emotional value!
Although present, the opportunities to make a WOW in B2B are little. In this context, to increase the perceived value of doing business with you, in a frequent and thoughtful way, will help retain that client.
This small formula for Value creation is based on the perception that your client has Benefits of doing business with you and fewer Constraints for doing business with you. To increase the perceived value of Benefits, we can be innovative in our products and / or services, which often require significant investments in time and money. In short, changing the “B” in the equation calls for strategic planning, and quite a lot of it.
However, eliminating constraints, especially if they are customized to a client, is much more feasible. By reducing a constraint, you automatically increase the value of doing business with you. When was the last time you made this effort for a client? Your account managers are best at finding these levers. Provided that the H2H relationship is already good
Just to do a small survey: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate us?” and once the answer is given, you follow with “what can we do to score a 10?” should bring out some small aggravation of your business relationship.
On a level of after-sales service, consider all your points of contact with your client: post-training meetings, videos and blogs, social media, voicemails, emails, etc. How can you make it more enjoyable (Benefits) or less complicated or procedural (Constraints)?
Be a little less in love with your service / product / business and a little more in love with the changing needs of your customers. Listen to your clients, but also your competitors clients… anticipate for the future! A client who feels that you understand WHERE he is going will have great difficulty letting you go.
Big emotions…
Sometimes, things go wrong. Too many customers, too many demands, employees who leave or become ill and suddenly, the service are not up to par … for a few days. The customer is disappointed, and you have to repair the damage.
All this may seem like the infancy of the art, but the more employees will have to manage the crisis and demonstrate emotional intelligence, the more you create emotional value, great emotional value.
Indeed, repairing the damage reassures the customer that you are able to properly respond to a problematic situation and, bring it all to their advantage!
(What nobody wants and, by the way, it helps to know the lifetime value of a customer to know the flexibility of which you’ll be forgiven, but this equation will be the subject of another article.)
The more positive emotions they have, the more loyal they are. The more your “experiments” are unique and enjoyable, the more loyalty there is. These multiple small emotions help to create value, the kind of value that creates loyalty.
