50% of B2B Leaders See their Digital Customer Experiences Keeping Pace with B2C Initiatives

New research indicates that half of B2B senior leaders consider their digital customer experiences to be just as effective and engaging as what their B2C counterparts deliver.

In a white paper published by Econsultancy and SAP Hybris, 34 percent of respondents said that their digital customer experiences were “reasonably advanced” compared to typical B2C retail experiences. About 16 percent said that they were at least “on par” with the best B2C experiences on the market.

However, 29 percent stated that they are “somewhat less advanced,” and 21 percent said they were “much less advanced,” highlighting room for improvement. While many B2B companies have digital customer experience strategies in place, only 40 percent include cross-departmental involvement into them.

“Most B2B companies are thinking of customer experience with too narrow a focus, limiting it to a marketing function and curtailing its potential impact,” wrote the authors of the white paper.

CMOs Remain Confident in Mastering the Customer Experience

Despite the challenges B2B companies are facing in regards to the digital customer experience, CMOs have not been deterred. The “Path to 2020” report published by Marketo and The Economist Intelligence Unit discovered that 86 percent of CMOs believe they will own the end-to-end customer experience by 2020.

Improving brand perception and increasing customer loyalty are the top two goals of CMOs honed in on improving the customer experience. By 2020, the majority of respondents (59 percent) said they believe mobile devices will have the biggest impact on marketing.