B2B services are i n t a n g i b l e.
That’s their nature. You rarely (if ever) see, taste, feel, hear, or smell a service before it’s bought. It’s there when delivered. Then it’s gone.
And that’s why it’s hard for customers to decide a service’s worth, to judge its value – which is a monumental challenge for service suppliers.
Luckily, there are concrete actions suppliers can do to help customers assess value. Here are a few key actions:
Enhanced Performance Reporting
B2B service suppliers can amp up their informal customer updates by adding formal Business Reviews held once/twice/four-times per year. Here’s how:
- Get customers face-to-face for at least an hour in that formal Business Review
- Document service performance in a leave-behind report
- Put time & effort into writing your customers’ success stories
- Make reports & presentation decks visually attractive
- Turn presentations into “edutainment,” which is another way of saying “don’t put your audience to sleep”
Get ready for customers’ response to your ongoing service success because:
When customers are so confident in your service – they stop showing up for review meetings. Don’t let ’em off the hook. Keep sending performance reports as proof of service success.
Make Data More Visual to Make More Sense
Customers look at enough boring data all day. Make your performance data interesting and understandable.
Numbers
For quantitative data, go beyond simplistic line, bar, and pie charts. Step into the world of rainbows, donuts, and spark lines.
Go even further, spend the time developing process control charts for one or two of your key metrics/measurements. Then make sure you educate customers as to what they mean, how they’re calculated, and why you’re using them.
Words
For qualitative data (words/key phrases), use word clouds (aka tag clouds), and/or size icons of key words next to their descriptions to show importance or use.
Raise Service Visibility
Intangibility makes B2B services invisible. So, step up the visibility and spend a little money to get seen positively and more often on customers’ sites.
NOTE: All the following require customers’ explicit OK. Consider:
- Worker uniforms – Choose/upgrade to ones with dynamic patterns and/or two contrasting (but complementary) colors
- Equipment wrapping – Apply branded wraps to carts, movable equipment, stands, etc. – in co-branded customer/supplier design
- Sponsor customer-approved social events – host events like “meet & greets with coffee & donuts” in customers’ lobbies for their tenants/employees – include co-branded customer/supplier floor stands and event announcements
- Digital display screen– place screen(s) in high-traffic areas with rotating performance data, weather, customer announcements – in co-branded customer/supplier design
B2B Service Summary
- Formalize performance reporting
- Supply numbers to make service real
- Make service visual – up the visibility ante
