Manufacturers must provide the best customer experience in today’s ultra-competitive business landscape. You need to be able to create a positive experience for your customers at every stage. That’s why modern manufacturing is changing from product development to customer development.
Modern manufacturing is all about improving customer experience. Today, companies must produce the things that customers want, and that requires a lot more than just good products. It requires a deep understanding of customer needs and desires and providing the highest levels of customer service.
Modern manufacturers understand that they also need to implement digital strategy for B2B businesses just like a B2C business. For example, The traditional B2B CNC machining shops rolled out online CNC quote services, users could instantly get the price by uploading their design and other requirements.
Recent stats show that B2B companies spend over 40% of their marketing budget on content marketing and websites. 91% of B2B businesses use content marketing to get customers’ attention(Source: Demand Metric). And according to the ‘Content Marketing Institute,’ they are getting 65% more conversion than previous.
But that is not the only change. We will discuss how modern-day manufacturing companies can improve customer experience. So, let’s dive into the topic.
Digital Customer Experience
Digital customer experience is the most vital aspect that every modern manufacturing company MUST adopt digital marketing, which starts with their website and the information they provide through their website.
Digital experience is synonym to modern day customer experience
Every interaction a potential customer has with a brand in the digital environment is considered a digital customer experience. This process includes many methods. For example, when a visitor enters your website, they see your digital profile. The content you provide shows your expertise and authority in the industry.
Every website has a contact page and an online quotation page. Customers nowadays don’t bother to call and talk. They will just send a message or ask for a quotation. And they measure your professionalism on how fast you can deliver the quote or answer their queries.
Many websites have an online chat system these days. Some use direct chat, and some other companies use third-party calling apps such as WeChat, WhatsApp, etc. These methods help customers to contact directly without spending time and money (phone calls are not free!)
Some companies provide downloadable documents for their products. Therefore, customers don’t even need to contact businesses directly. They just download the doc files and learn about your business.
It’s not possible to describe all the aspects of the digital experience. Therefore, we created a list for you:
- An attractive and responsive website that looks decent on every device.
- Users must be able to navigate the website easily. Not too flashy, nor too dull.
- Marketing automation software.
- CRM system integration to provide prompt support.
- Provide content for each section of the sales funnel.
- Smartly use the CTA button for conversation.
- Try to collect leads (emails) and send offers to them.
- Use your customer database for promotional offers. Everyone loves to feel special.
- Technologies like Data Analytics, the Internet of things (IoT), and Artificial intelligence are not fiction anymore. They are real, and companies should integrate these technologies for longer sustainability.
Modern-day Trends to improve customer’s Experience
Integrate IoT and AI
The Fourth Industrial Revolution brings IoT things to manufacturing, which results in numerous opportunities for manufacturers. Manufacturers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help them run their operations more efficiently and deliver more direct service capabilities. As we mentioned the instant quote trend in the CNC machining field, companies like Protolabs, RapidDirect are catching out the chance to achieve digital marketing. Customers’ purchase journey got optimized.
Result-oriented Contracts
As customers become less worried about purchasing equipment, more organizations are turning to performance-based contracts. They’re more concerned about the investment’s return. For equipment manufacturers, this might lead to an increase in rentals and a decrease in sales. Long-term rental agreements can help companies recoup and perhaps more than sales by allowing them to sign long-term contracts.
Different Customer Service Metrics Need to Be Put in Order
Numbers never lie. You can talk about many good things about improving customer experience, but without supporting data, those claims are just slogans. Therefore, many companies are showing their customer service metrics to support their claim of better customer service. Some of the important metrics are:
- Quality and failure metrics
- Production output
- Equipment uptime
- The amount of time needed to bring new products to market
Publish Content to Educate your Customers
“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” A famous quotation from an established marketing cartoonist Tom Fishburne. You can create a strong audience base with your quality content. Content marketing is the best way to do that.
According to Statista, content marketing revenue doubled from 2014 to0 2019.
Content marketing services revenue is expected to reach $50 billion in 2019, up from $26.5 billion in 2014. Today B2B marketers use content marketing more than B2C, which was not the case a few years ago. And B2B businesses who use content marketing get 65% more conversion rate (Hubspot’s report).
You can publish a knowledge base, white paper, and FAQ guides to educate your audiences. Thus, you can also establish authority over your industry. Write articles about common problems that clients face. You can also create a YouTube channel for further help. That also brings passive traffic to your business.
Not doing content marketing? DO NOT hear anybody; start NOW!
Conclusion
Modern-day manufacturing is largely dependent on digital experience. After the COVID-19 breakdown, it increased exponentially. Now, no company can survive without providing a robust digital experience to its clients. That is the only way to improve customer’s satisfaction.