A Customer-oriented Manager for B2B Services. Valerie Mathieu
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59% of B2C customers are willing to do so;
– 82% of B2B respondents say that a great experience with one company increases expectations of other companies; 69% of B2C respondents make the same claim.
However, it must be admitted that the understanding of the experience is much more complex in a B2B environment than in a B2C one. If the B2C customer experience is that of an individual, the B2B customer experience is that of a company. First of all, the customer experience takes place over a long cycle. It begins with the first contact between the service provider and the customer in a pre-purchase phase, the duration of which increases with the complexity of the service. Then, many services are provided on the basis of multi-year contracts with a high level of interaction between the service provider and its client. To this temporal dimension, we must add that the experience is the result of a face-to-face meeting between a large number of actors on the client and provider sides.
While the manager cannot be responsible for the entire customer experience, he or she must nevertheless be careful to deliver the elements that he or she and his or her team control, in order to contribute to a positive experience for the customer. This includes the interaction between the customer and the front-line employees, who by their customer orientation will contribute to the creation of a positive service experience.
2.3. Characteristics of the service
Service has characteristics that distinguish it from a product12. Beyond the knowledge of these characteristics, the manager must manage the implications that have specificities in a B2B context.
2.3.1. Intangibility
2.3.1.1. Two dimensions of intangibility
Services are intangible. We cannot use our five senses to approach them. One cannot see, touch, smell, hear or taste a consulting service or a technical maintenance service as one can for raw material or a machine tool. This is the physical dimension of intangibility. The second dimension of intangibility is of a mental nature; the client has difficulty in forming an idea of the service he or she is really going to obtain, in appreciating its quality before the realization of the service and sometimes even after. From the client’s point of view, the perception of risk stems from this uncertainty attached to the purchase of a service.
2.3.1.2. Managing the client’s perceived risk
Managers must then manage this risk as perceived by the client. They can choose to rely on it openly if they believe that they can use it as a competitive advantage, by demonstrating that they are the players best able to manage this risk13. Alternatively, it can engage in a more discreet and indirect approach by seeking to reduce the client’s perceived risk.
In the case of a client with whom they have already been involved, they will have to skillfully bring out past elements of the relationship that contribute to reassure the client. In the case of new clients, it will be necessary to make the service tangible in order to give the client signs of the value and quality of the service14. The premises, the material, the documents given, the telephone reception, the website, the collaborators themselves and the brand or the network are for the customer so many signs on which they will rely to infer professionalism, seriousness and quality.
In a B2B context, the diversity of people involved in the customer’s purchase decision must also be taken into account. Not all of them will have the same perception of risk; the intensity and nature of the perceived risk often vary between the people in the buying center. Managers must, therefore, understand these variations and provide personalized responses in order to reinforce the negotiation strategy.
2.3.2. Simultaneity
2.3.2.1. Direct consequence of servuction
Simultaneity is a direct consequence of servuction. It indicates that the service is performed and consumed at the same time. The front-line employees are at the heart of this simultaneity, interacting more or less strongly depending on the nature of the service. Hence, the customer attaches so much importance to the service process. The challenge of this simultaneity is to manage this interaction between the service employees and the customer in the best possible way so that it brings value to both the company and its customer.
2.3.2.2. Managing the interaction between the client and the provider
The reality of provider–client interaction is particularly complex in a B2B context. It is not a single person on the provider’s side who acts with a client, but a large number of collaborators on the provider’s side who act with many people on the client’s side15. These people will be different depending on the phase of the relationship (during the decision process, during the service, after the service). The stakes of the interaction will also differ according to the phase of the relationship, leading to different relational modes. During the decision-making process, the actors interact in a negotiation mode. During the service, the interaction is naturally more collaborative. At the end of the service, we find ourselves in a more administrative and relaxed mode if the service went well or, on the contrary, clearly conflictual if there were dysfunctions on the client’s or service provider’s side. Managers must, therefore, not only ensure that they are present, even to varying degrees, throughout the relationship, but also adapt their interaction style to each phase of the relationship.
2.3.3. Heterogeneity
2.3.3.1. Heterogeneity factors
Because of its simultaneity, meaning that it is produced each time it is consumed, the service varies from one performance to another. The factors that explain this heterogeneity are numerous: depending on the employee who performs the service, depending on the client who participates in the service, depending on the time during which the service is performed and even depending on the place where the service is performed. The consequence is a variation in the quality of the service. Depending on these factors, the service provider may deliver an excellent service or a catastrophic one. The manager’s objective is to control these factors as well as possible, based on the knowledge of the customer’s expectations, in order to ensure the most consistent level of service possible.
2.3.3.2. Managing service quality
B2B service contracts often include performance objectives in order to limit the risk of heterogeneity. In the context of a B2B service, the manager can act in two directions. The first is to work on the service process to ensure that all the elements of this process that can be formalized, and, therefore, likely to be standardized. This is similar to the principle of operation sheets, like a worksite preparation sheet, for example. The other line of work concerns the service employees, a strong factor of heterogeneity in a large number of service situations. It is then up to managers to make their teams aware of this reality and to support them in order to neutralize this drift.
2.3.4. Perishability
2.3.4.1. Lack of stock
Because of its intangibility and also because it is consumed at the same time as it is realized, the service cannot be stored. This is the interpretation of the perishability of the service.
The consequence is that, over a given period of time, a given service unit has only a given capacity to perform services. At its maximum capacity, a new business opportunity cannot be seized by the service provider. On the other hand, the unit may find itself under capacity at a given moment due to a lack of contracts, leaving a certain number of employees unoccupied. It is obviously these two extreme situations that managers must anticipate in order to avoid them as much as possible.
2.3.4.2. Managing the service capacity
In a B2B context, there is also the