Aspiring brands should adopt a customer-centric approach if they're to build foundations of loyal customers. We recently presented at the Business Intelligence Group Soapbox. In the presentation, we talked about how important the human touch is within B2B. People buy from people (most of the time). Our Commercial Director Chris shares a few thoughts on the importance of the human touch in creating customer closeness and profitable B2B relationships to increase loyalty and revenue.

The human factor can make all the difference. B2B buyers are human beings. And human beings prefer to buy from suppliers they like and feel closer to. Closeness is a core building block of our loyalty model – and one that drives growth for both B2C and B2B brands.  

Whilst important in B2C, listening to customers and treating each as an individual rises to even more prominence for B2B brands. Customers respond well to individualised treatment and service. This can mean several different things across specific sectors, but often covers: 

- How customers feel rewarded for their loyalty 

- How much customers feel listened to 

- The flexibility and customisation of products/services that increases relevance 

- Treating customers as equals and partners 

Even the most transactional, price-driven B2B markets involve loyalty. The danger is when brands focus too squarely on product and service KPIs. Whilst important for hanging on to existing contracts and business, B2B brands must build closeness to have maximum impact on long term revenue growth.

R&D (pre and during COVID-19) shows that customer closeness plays a much stronger role in driving new customer acquisition and revenue per customer – thus even more important as markets become increasingly competitive and customers harder to retain. 

The B2B world does not operate by ambitions of flat performance. Brands work on growth models. And the way to grow is to steal share and maximise spend from high value customers.