Nearly everyone in the business world has heard about the importance of customer experience. Unhappy customers lead to lost sales and decreased revenue. Happy customers lead to sustained sales and steady revenue. This simple fact underscores the importance of understanding how a customer feels about a given product or service.

While there is significant focus on the customer experience in B2C relationships, less discussed is the customer experience in the B2B world. However, the customer experience in B2B relationships is just as important.

To understand the importance of customer sentiments in the B2B space, PaymentsJournal sat down with Pete Reville, director of Primary Research Services at Mercator Advisory Group. Reville explained what barriers exist to a company understanding client sentiment and how these challenges can be addressed. In addition, he spoke about the benefits a company will gain from a more accurate understanding of their business clients’ attitudes.

PaymentsJournalUnderstanding B2B Customers Can Be Hard. This Can Help.PaymentsJournal Understanding B2B Customers Can Be Hard. This Can Help.PaymentsJournaljQuery(document).ready(function ($){var settings_ap36694392 = { design_skin: "skin-wave" ,autoplay: "off",disable_volume:"default" ,loop:"off" ,cue: "on" ,embedded: "off" ,preload_method:"metadata" ,design_animateplaypause:"off" ,skinwave_dynamicwaves:"off" ,skinwave_enableSpectrum:"off" ,skinwave_enableReflect:"on",settings_backup_type:"full",playfrom:"default",soundcloud_apikey:"" ,skinwave_comments_enable:"off",settings_php_handler:window.ajaxurl,skinwave_wave_mode:"canvas",pcm_data_try_to_generate: "on","pcm_notice": "off","notice_no_media": "on",design_color_bg: "111111",design_color_highlight: "ef6b13",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_number: "3",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_padding: "1",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_reflection_size: "0.25",skinwave_comments_playerid:"36694392",php_retriever:"https://www.paymentsjournal.com/wp-content/plugins/dzs-zoomsounds/soundcloudretriever.php" }; try{ dzsap_init(".ap_idx_88468_2",settings_ap36694392); }catch(err){ console.warn("cannot init player", err); } });

Customer experience is debatably more important in the B2B world than B2C

Even though customer experience is the central focus of many B2C companies, it can actually be more impactful in B2B relationships. For instance, when a disgruntled customer stops shopping at their local grocery store, that store loses one customer out of many. While that is costly, especially if the disgruntled customer convinces a few other shoppers to change their behavior as well, the consequences in the B2B space can be substantially greater.

Many companies involved in B2B services only have a small number of high profile clients, with contracts worth millions of dollars. This is often the case for many payments companies, explained Reville. Usually, these high profile clients make up a substantial percentage of a company’s overall revenue. The stakes are high; one unhappy client can mean the loss of millions of dollars.

In such a situation, it’s essential that an organization understand how its customers regard “key aspects of client servicing, which is your product, the service you deliver with your product, and the value they’re receiving for the money that they pay,” said Reville. Without having this information, a company is pretty much flying blind.

It can be hard to understand the sentiments of your business client

With such high stakes, the ability to understand customer sentiment is indispensable. However, the ability to truly understand how a client feels is easier said than done. The immediate problem is the way in which many companies traditionally go about gauging ...