Relationship NPS^® for B2B Businesses

Customer loyalty is something that every business craves. It’s something that’s not easy to gain but quite easy to lose. This is where the Net Promoter System^® can aid businesses to deploy feedback mechanisms, understand customer grievances, and take dynamic steps.

But is the customer only limited to who buys your final product? What about industry-level customers, such as suppliers or distributors? Shouldn’t you be measuring their experience of interacting with your business as well?

Importance of B2B NPS^® programme

Loyalty in B2B markets comes with its own challenges. In the B2C market, there’s only one customer with who you’re engaging. In B2B markets, there are a lot of people influencing the relationship.

Defining who your customer really is, and engaging them in the best possible way, requires highly customised and sophisticated solutions. You won’t be sending the same feedback form to the operations manager as you would to the on-ground staff supervisor.

It’s not enough to simply delight a B2B customer. You need to go beyond mere satisfaction to earn loyalty and enthusiasm as well.

Key benefits of relationship NPS^® programme

Apart from the softer element of a productive and effective partnership in earning B2B loyalty, there’s a big advantage of a profitable partnership, leading to organic growth.

Some key benefits of the relationship NPS^® programme are:

Long-term relationship → low cost of serving

B2B customers who are promoters stay with your business for longer, as opposed to detractors. Their long-term relationship with you adds the advantage of increased buying from them, while reducing your costs to serve them.

They also recommend you to other business partners, friends, family, etc.

Correlation between NPS^® and sales growth

According to research done by Bain & Company, a healthy relationship NPS^® for B2B businesses leads to sales growth, better productivity, and higher profitability.

Better annual growth

B2B loyalty leaders tend to grow 4 to 8% above their market’s annual growth.

How to analyse feedback from relationship NPS^® programmes

The thing for you to remember is: a trustworthy relationship NPS^® for B2B businesses is as emotional as any consumer product or brand, and can create personal responses and feelings.

Just because you’re dealing with a set of professionals does not mean you’re no longer dealing with humans.

Understanding your B2B customer

In a B2B setting, there are different kinds of customers that you need to have feedback mechanisms for. There are the business leaders, the operational users, and other sets of customers who engage with you at different points in the transaction cycle. Each of them has different needs and expectations, and thus would require a tailored system to capture feedback.

To ensure you’re hearing from the right people, maintain an accurate hierarchy and map of the people involved in approving vendors, making buying decisions, and influencing these decisions.

You will also have to design your feedback in a way that is short, easy to fill – unless it’s over the phone – and contains the most pertinent questions for the consumers.

It’s a good idea to check with your customer if they’d prefer in-person feedback or an online survey. This way you have prepared them for the receipt of the feedback, and also opened up channels of communication for follow-ups.

Role of NPS^® in a B2B setting

A NPS^® for B2B businesses is for capturing feedback, but it’s dissimilar to how feedback is taken for a consumer product.

In B2C, you’re talking to and solving the grievances of a single person. In B2B, you’re talking to an entire organisation. So it’s not only about customer satisfaction, but also about facilitating conversations that can affect – positively – the relationship between two businesses.

Using feedback to build relationships

Net Promoter Scores^® are on a scale of 0 to 10. In the context of B2B, you would think an average score for one business is what will tell you about their loyalty towards you. But it’s really not about the average score. It’s about what scores the key people have given you, and what comments they have given to justify that score.

It’s that comment that can work as a gold mine for you, opening doors to engaging your customer, and building a successful business relationship.

Closing the feedback loop

After receiving the feedback, close it with account managers to understand customer’s responses and comments.

What does closing the feedback loop mean?

It’s a call to showcase how serious you are about the feedback that was given. It also showcases your business’ empathy and commitment to a loyal working relationship. Get more detailed information on Feedback and NPS^®here.

Working on building your relationship NPS^® for B2B businesses provides you with a competitive advantage, and drives growth for your business that’s sustainable.

It allows you to nip problems in the bud before they become insurmountable, and to build a strong business.