Personalised, connected and customer-driven: The future of manufacturing

Historically, the manufacturing industry has been accustomed to traditional, offline ways of working, such as serving clients through phone and fax and manually monitoring production and asset maintenance. While this may have been fine in the past, these methods are redundant when it comes to solving challenges such as mitigating the impact of supply chain disruptions or keeping up with changing consumer demand.

 

Today, millennials make up the majority of B2B customers, accounting for 73 per cent of all B2B purchasing decisions. As the first to grow up with the internet and mobile phones, this generation is far more technologically driven than the ones before. This means:

• Products and services are researched extensively online before purchase
• Videos are generally preferred over reports and whitepapers
• Their questions need to be answered and their problems resolved quickly (almost instantaneously, if possible)
• They want a variety of ways to get in touch with a brand – the usual phone, email and catalogue options aren’t enough
• Personalisation is appreciated – they want to feel special when interacting with a brand

With these in mind, manufacturers are having to revisit their offerings to deliver engaging, unique and flawless experiences that differentiate them from the competition.

 

B2B customers looking for a B2C experience

 

Customer experience (CX) remains central to customer loyalty. According to a Gartner survey, it contributes to over two-thirds of customer loyalty – more than both brand and price combined.

 

The companies that prioritise customer experience have the happiest customers and are three times more likely to significantly exceed their top business goals than their peers.

 

With access to the right information at the right time, you can create and deliver personalised experiences that consistently engage and delight your customers. Here are some tips on creating a great CX strategy for your manufacturing business:

 

1)      Allow customers to customise products by themselves

 

Your website will likely be the first point of contact you have with your customers, and that first impression counts. Almost half of users (48 per cent) say website design is the top factor when determining a business’s credibility.

 

With the majority of modern-day consumers researching online before they make a purchase, your website content needs to be optimised to increase its visibility when buyers search for products or services related to your business.

 

After that, focus on simplifying the online experience as much as possible, with quick page loading times, easy website navigation and a smooth checkout process.

 

2)      Find an efficient way to store your customer data

 

To stay ahead of market trends and consumer demands, you need to be storing your customer data and analysing it. The problem is, the bigger your sales and customer database, the harder it can be to manage it all.

 

By investing in a customer relationship management (CRM) system, you can centralise customer data, allowing you to drill into the details of your customers, from who they are and what industries they work in to where they came from (e.g. referral or organic search). Having this key data in one location means you can spend less time searching for what you need and more time engaging with these customers throughout their entire lifecycle.

 

With a clearer picture of who your customers are, you can continuously provide them with more personalised content, services and experiences, helping you boost customer retention and sales.

 

3)      Simplify your product information management process

 

Too often, product information – one of a company’s strategic assets – is scattered across various spreadsheets and different departments. By implementing a product information management (PIM) solution, you can take charge of your product data and content.

 

A PIM system puts all areas of inventory management under one roof so you can ensure the product data you share on your website is the most accurate and up-to-date version. This means your customers can have a clearer picture of what they’re purchasing, which can reduce return rate, boost satisfaction and enhance experience.

 

Meeting the challenges of modern CX

 

The right tools can set your manufacturing business on its way to excelling in customer experience – but you also need the right mindset and culture inside your organisation to make your business transformation a success. In other words, choose solutions that fit into your existing processes and get your teams on board for the best chance of success.

 

---

 

Download Columbus’ report, produced in association with Business Reporter, for a look at the internal and external impacts of digital transformation and how it connects to customer experience.

 

---

 

By Simon Noakes, UK Business Line Director, Customer Engagement and Business Central, Columbus