How to Improve the B2B Customer Journey

A few years ago, many used to think that a B2B customer journey is a straightforward progression through a series of steps. In reality, that may be true for B2C journeys, but B2B customer journeys are much more complicated. 

Your B2B customer journey describes the path your customers take from discovery to conversion and all their touchpoints with your company. And that’s never a linear path.

Many people are involved in decision making. Numerous customer touchpoints. Lengthy sales cycles with extensive research and negotiation phases. The B2B customer journey can be a long, complex experience.

Image by Andrei Zinkevich of Fullfunnel.io (source: LinkedIn) 

Exactly what is the customer journey of a B2B client, then? How can you improve it to create efficient, personalized experiences and profitable paths to conversion? Let’s find out.

The B2B customer journey encompasses all the stages that online customers go through, from the moment they first interact with your brand through to post-purchase. 

Below are the main stages of a typical B2B SaaS customer journey.

Awareness

Customers first become aware of a need or pain point and begin looking for products or services to help them overcome their challenge. 

Brands target customers at this stage using search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing, providing educational and authoritative content via blog posts, e-books, and case studies.

Consideration

Customers have already realized what kind of solution they need and begin researching and comparing different solutions. They use comparison websites, customer reviews, and word-of-mouth recommendations to inform their evaluation. 

Reviews by other users are the top resource sought by customers (41%), followed by branded product marketing content, such as product demonstrations and product user guides.

Image from Gartner.com

Conversion/Decision

Customers have chosen a B2B product and are ready to make a purchase. 

Providing an easy checkout process with transparent pricing and multiple payment options optimizes your journey for conversion.

Retention

At this stage, B2B brands encourage paying customers to make repeat purchases or renewals by fostering long-term relationships built on trust and value. 

Efficient onboarding, exceptional customer service, and personalized product recommendations are all tactics used for customer retention.

Loyalty/Advocacy

Customers who reach this stage are long-term brand advocates. 

To encourage them, brands use loyalty programs, exclusive discounts, and product improvements that keep loyal customers happy and drive referrals. 

Now that we’ve outlined the B2B customer journey, let’s discuss the steps to improve it and deliver exceptional B2B customer experiences, increasing conversions and retention. Here’s how to do it.

1. Create a Customer Journey Map

Despite the fact that the B2B customer journey isn’t linear, it’s better to be aware of what it looks like in your case to know where to apply efforts. A B2B customer journey map gives you a holistic view of your customer lifecycle, helping you understand and optimize each stage of the customer journey. 

This type of map is a visual representation of your customer’s journey from end to end. It charts each stage in the buying process and details the differing customer needs, pain points, motivations, behaviors, and touchpoints within each stage.

A Miro template for customer journey mapping

Having a 360° view of your customer journey gives you deeper insights into your customers’ needs at every stage. By following this map, you can hone in on specific areas to identify flaws and opportunities for improvement.

To simplify the process of B2B customer journey mapping, you can use a customer mapping tool that offers a simple visual template. Popular choices include Miro (that’s what we at Mouseflow use for this task), Lucidchart, and Figma. 

Usually, such a map would include the following:

• Your buyer persona
• All the stages of the customer journey
• Your customer’s actions at each stage of the journey
• Their needs and pains at each stage
• All the different touchpoints a customer uses
• Thoughts, feelings, and emotions at each touchpoint
• The solutions you offer through your products or services

2. Personalize Customers’ Journeys

B2B clients have no interest in generic content and one-size-fits-all solutions. They value personalized experiences that resonate with their needs and pain points.

And, they’re willing to pay for it. 86% of customers are more likely to buy from companies that understand their goals – and are, therefore, much better placed to provide bespoke experiences. Tailored experiences are also huge drivers of customer loyalty, as they help sales teams nurture long-term relationships.

Source: facebook.com (by Seattle Web Design)

So, use the customer data you’ve collected and the customer journey map to create a SaaS marketing plan that prioritizes personalization.

Segment your email lists and diversify your landing pages to target buyer personas with relevant content at each stage of their journey. Make personalized product recommendations to cross-sell and up-sell items based on customers’ browsing behavior and shopping history. And, reward your loyal customers with generous discounts that communicate your appreciation for their repeat service.

3. Streamline Website Experiences

Your website is the heart of your B2B buyer journey. So, empower users to convert by offering a seamless, intuitive, and informational website experience.

Here are the main things to focus on:

• Optimize checkout: Customers abandon their carts for various reasons, such as having to create an account (26%), complicated/lengthy checkout processes (22%), or limited payment options (13%). Add features like guest checkout, auto-fill forms, and multiple payment options to simplify your checkout process.

  📖Read more about improving checkout experience.

• Prioritize user-friendliness: Create an intuitive website layout with simple navigation menus, clear categories, internal links, and a search bar. The easier it is for customers to navigate your website, the faster they can find the information they need to fuel their decision-making process.


Source: facebook.com (by Seattle Web Design)

• Ensure mobile responsiveness: perhaps, people don’t buy B2B products from their phones, but B2B buyers often conduct research on mobile. So, your website needs to load quickly and correctly on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.
• Maintain an updated website: When users make it to their desired website page, it should tell them exactly what they need to know. Everything from pricing and stock information to features and functionalities should be accurate and up-to-date to empower customers to make purchasing decisions without frustrating obstacles.

If lots of users are bouncing, you need to figure out why. If you discover that users are churning after reaching a specific page, for instance, it might indicate that the page doesn’t match the search intent. Or, the page could be broken, unresponsive, or riddled with grammatical errors. 

Mouseflow’s Conversion Funnel Optimization Tool tracks customers as they progress through your website funnel, illuminating where and why they drop off. Leveraging analytics, you can analyze user journeys, identify unprofitable and profitable paths, and optimize your funnel for conversion.

Mouseflow conversion funnel example

4. Leverage Technology to Optimize Experiences

Automation, AI, and machine learning automate and optimize B2B customer journeys, helping you meet increasingly complex customer expectations.

This is especially true for companies with SaaS enterprise offerings. Enterprise customers have high demands: they want innovative features, swift customer service, and a tailored customer experience on top of enterprise-level security and reliability. 

By implementing the right technologies into the right stages of your journey, you can meet and exceed expectations. This guides potential customers toward conversion and fosters retention and loyalty.

The customer journey map is very helpful here as well. Looking at the actions that the customers take at a certain point and the emotions that they have, you can test certain technologies to improve the customer experience and simplify the buyer journey. Better customer experience even at a few touchpoints can play an important role in converting a potential customer into an actual customer.

Here are some key technologies to consider:

• Chatbots: Almost 100% of B2B buyers want to self-service their buying journey. Chatbots handle customers’ inquiries and questions immediately, on a 24/7 basis. Place them within your customer journey to empower self-service and streamlined experiences. But make sure to have human beings who can jump in to help resolve issues that chatbots get stuck with. If you’re a Mouseflow user, we’re sure you’ve used the Intercom chatbot more than once – we rely on it for support and educating users.
• Predictive analytics tools: Track sales trends and customer behavior patterns to anticipate their needs and meet them with tailored solutions. You can also identify users at risk of churn and make targeted efforts to retain them by optimizing their experience for conversion.
• Customer experience platforms: Use a CRM system, customer experience platform, and business intelligence tools to collect and analyze customer journey data. Use this information to provide B2B buyers with valuable content across digital channels.
• User behavior analytics: Track user behavior to identify patterns and trends. Mouseflow, for example, is a powerful behavior analytics tool that offers session replay and can track and record 100% of your customer sessions, offering insights into their behavior. Use heatmaps to analyze behaviors like clicks, scrolls, and hovers. Keep an eye on the friction score that highlights frustrating obstacles in your customer journey — such as confusing website forms, unclickable elements, or broken buttons.

5. Provide Continuous Post-Purchase Support

Your B2B customer journey should be designed to nurture long-term relationships. This means paying extra attention to the post-purchase stages of your journey.

Businesses often fall into the trap of focusing on user acquisition, but retaining customers is often easier than acquiring them, and the costs are much lower. So, maintain customer engagement and make sure they feel well cared for.

Once they have completed a purchase, send them a welcome email and onboarding materials, such as how-to guides or video tutorials. Provide them with additional information to help them extract the most value from your product. Check if they are using the product and reach out to them to help with setup if you see that they struggle with it.

Create customer feedback surveys to collect data and implement suggestions aligning with customers’ needs and preferences. 

Surveys also help assess how happy customers are with the product. We, for instance, regularly send a customer satisfaction survey (CSAT) – and are happy to share that this year our CSAT score is 98%! 

And, of course, provide troubleshooting services via a dedicated customer service or helpdesk team.

An effective B2B customer journey relies on a deep understanding of your customers and how they progress through your sales funnel. 

By optimizing your customer journey using personalization, automation, and streamlined website and post-purchase experiences, you drive customer satisfaction, conversions, and loyalty.