Navigating a Customer Experience Management Maturity Model for B2Bs
Updated: Jan 20
Customer Experience Management (CXM* or CEM) encompasses the processes companies use to oversee and improve all client interactions throughout their buyer's journey. What then, is the role of a customer experience maturity in this landscape?
*based on this context, we will be using CXM throughout this blog
As digital transformation redefines how clients build relationships with businesses, an effective CXM strategy in B2B should offer an empathetic, customer-centric, and perception-based approach to stimulate growth and boost revenue.
Understanding customer experience maturity allows organizations to gauge how their level of business relationship impacts their client's decision-making.
What is a Customer Experience Management Maturity Model?
Simply put, a Customer Experience Management Maturity Model is a structured framework that "serves as a yardstick for where you are now, and what should be your next step." It can be a reliable roadmap that helps identify these touchpoints, uncover blindspots, and offer growth opportunities.
The Encompass-CX Maturity Model consists of five (5) structured stages:
Stage 1: Chaotic
Stage 2: Repeatable
Stage 3: Defined
Stage 4: Measured
Stage 5: Optimized
As an organization earns more Sales Equity, it progresses through each stage, with the 5th stage being the ideal state.
But what makes a CX maturity model so crucial in customer experience and how can you use it effectively? Let's delve further.
How to Use the Encompass-CX Maturity Model Effectively
Underlying the applications of any maturity model is a simple question: Where does our organization stand, and where can we go from here?
In the context of CXM, a maturity model helps businesses visualize their strengths, weaknesses, and areas ripe for development. With Encompass-CX, it’s about identifying where you are in terms of managing these key touchpoints and processes.
With an effective maturity model, a company can streamline its processes, maintain consistency, and have the capability to scale. Understanding where an organization stands in this continuum allows key decision-makers to push for CX improvement.
Assessing the Current B2B CXM Maturity
To begin with, B2Bs must also engage in diligent self-evaluation and assessment. Recognizing their current stage in the maturity model is critical as it informs an organization's strategy and action plan moving forward.
Stage 1: Chaotic
We have emphasized the importance of building deep business relationships between B2Bs. In most cases, businesses do not realize how much they leave on the table by not having a standard way of measuring client feedback. Oftentimes, they simply do not know that these business relationships can actually be measured, so the customer interaction process is not defined. This is why CX activities tend to be unpredictable and reactive. To mature into the next stage, a process should be established.
Stage 2: Repeatable
While feedback is sporadic and coming in from various resources, companies can start strategically implementing changes to improve their customer experience from this point. The beginning of a repeatable client process is underway and account teams are learning the best practices to bring it to the next stage.
Stage 3: Defined
At this point, basic customer journey mapping and client processes are already documented. CX strategies are in place and teams are understanding their competencies. Feedback loops between account teams and clients are being set up to bring more data and deeper CX insights.
Stage 4: Measured
Measurement becomes standardized as the customer interaction process becomes more cohesive through the stages. By this stage, feedback data turns into actionable CX solutions. When feedback loops work as intended, teams consistently operate and improve systems. The ability to analyze these measurements brings B2Bs to the 5th stage in the CXM maturity continuum.
Stage 5: Optimized
B2Bs reach this ideal state when client processes are refined according to measured data. There are dedicated resources focused on client experience. This can involve predictive modeling to visualize how changes will impact operations, integrating advanced technologies to enhance customer communication, or allocating specialized teams to oversee all customer experience initiatives. By this stage, data can influence key business decisions.
Businesses should constantly evaluate their performance and seek ways to optimize their strategies ensuring that their practices continue to evolve as customer needs and market conditions shift.
Now, based on these indicators, what stage do you think your B2B is in?
Putting the CXM Maturity Model in Action
To illustrate the practical application of this customer experience management maturity model, consider the case of a hypothetical B2B manufacturer who caters to clients ranging from $100k to $1M contracts.
Suppose this B2B manufacturer quickly achieved success when it entered the market and suddenly found itself with more delays in their delivery process. They decided to assess their CXM, which identified itself in the Chaotic Stage, focusing primarily on resolving client complaints as they arose rather than proactively enhancing their buyer's journey.
After conducting an in-depth CXM maturity assessment, the business could then re-engineer its processes to fit into the Repeatable Stage. Find the bottleneck in the process and build a solution. From here it can start streamlining the measurement of their clients' experience to gather fact-based data.
Moreover, the ability to plot Relationship Climates and Alignment based on their Sales Equity with each client can help them identify what and who to prioritize. Trust is built when clients see that this B2B manufacturer takes the initiative in resolving their issues.
The manufacturer can then use these new operational structures to drive its movement toward the next stage of the CXM maturity model.
Understanding the Challenges in Implementing the CXM Maturity Model
Like any significant business transformation, implementing the CXM maturity model comes with its set of challenges. One of the most common hurdles businesses face is gaining the requisite level of commitment from all stakeholders. It's crucial to remember that enhancing the B2B customer experience is organization-wide work. It's not confined to just the customer service department. Every employee plays a part in shaping the customer journey.
Technological limitations can pose another obstacle. It's one thing to want to harness the latest tech trends to augment your customer experience. It's another thing entirely to have the technical skills, resources, and infrastructure needed to do so effectively.
Data management also becomes a challenge as businesses progress through the maturity stages. They'll amass an increasing amount of customer data. Without robust data management and analytics capabilities, these data can become more of a hindrance than a help.
Using Encompass-CX to Overcome CXM Maturity Model Challenges
The truth is that assessments can only do so much. Without proper execution, a business's growth can be stunted. Accurately measuring data is key for the CXM maturity model to be effective and get ahead of common challenges.
Encompass-CX provides B2Bs with the technology to:
measure client experience based on a combination of behavioral, psychographic, and fact-based data;
use customer insights to predict future customer engagement trends;
organize large accounts by SEQ score, value, and number of active contacts so you stay focused on current and future objectives;
create a tailored communication strategy around areas for improvement; and
build custom reports based on your client's climate, practice, and promoter scores.
As a young industry, CXM can seem daunting, especially for B2Bs. There are long-standing business relationships you wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. Executives might think they already know all about their clients. Unfortunately, "we are notoriously bad at judging our own abilities." See our article about client relations and emotional intelligence.
This is why Encompass-CX is on a mission to help companies go beyond customer satisfaction to power a greater customer experience. It’s not about your organizational challenges, because really, every company has them. It’s about treating your buyers, not as average scores, but as individuals.
Truly asking them, "What is it that you want us to change?"
Encompass-CX Powers a Custom CXM Solution
Going through each of the stages of the Encompass-CX maturity model to get to the Optimized Stage definitely requires time and patience. The rapid advancement of AI and big data is quickly seeping into B2B CX strategies. Encompass-CX aims to aid businesses in personalizing their customer experience, predicting customer behavior, and streamlining their operations.
Amid all these, it is crucial to remember the need to maintain a genuine human connection. Businesses of the future will have to strike the right balance between using high-tech tools to enhance customer experience and strengthening client relationships.
Remember, it's not just the companies that do business, it's the people within that build their trust with one another. Accelerating into a Trusted Advisor relationship is still the best way to ensure customer satisfaction and loyal clients.
Understanding and implementing the Customer Experience Management Maturity Model is no easy task. It requires commitment, strategic planning, and a deep desire to put the customer at the heart of all business operations. However, with every step toward a more mature CXM strategy comes improved customer satisfaction, increased business performance, and a stronger competitive standing.
The journey to customer experience excellence begins with the first stage, and there's no better time to take it than now.
Co-written with Kristel Pineda
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