Leveraging SAP CX to Reduce Churn and Boost Basket Value (Part 4)

The most successful manufacturers are creating competitive advantage and enabling growth by using innovative SAP CX technologies to delight their customers. Modern manufacturers of all sizes are transforming from engineering products to also creating excellent experiences. By becoming customer-centric in their services and processes, manufacturers can get closer to their customers and boost profits.

Part 1 of our CX blog series highlighted the reasons why manufacturers need a CX System?

Part 2 discussed why design-led CX is becoming the next big thing for B2B manufacturers.

Part 3 tackled the unique complexities and challenges for B2B manufacturers compared with B2C retailers.

In part 4, we discuss how B2B Manufacturers can reduce churn and increase basket value with SAP CX. According to Gartner, 70% of customer interactions will involve intelligent technologies such as machine learning and chatbots by 2022. Manufacturers are awash in data, which they capture across many touchpoints between the customer, products and employees. They usually collect data in a sales system that has information on returns and customer importance ranking. They may also have a customer services system that tracks a number of interactions including complaints. Manufacturers may even have a CRM system that they populate with information from reps’ visits. However, without an efficient and reliable way to gather all of their data in an easy-to-use format, interrogate and understand, they can’t use the information they’re collecting to improve customer satisfaction or boost revenue.

By combining information from multiple systems into a good CX (customer experience) platform, manufacturers can provide their customers with a single source of truth in real-time. This means the customer gets accurate pricing, product and delivery information and a personalised, intuitive experience for buying, spares, warranties and aftersales services.

With a comprehensive SAP CX system that incorporates intelligent technologies, manufacturers can use machine-learning algorithms to personalise and continuously optimise their customers’ online buying experience. This creates opportunities for automatic cross-sell and upsell recommendations, such as alternative products with higher margins and additional products that other customers add to their baskets such as machine oils, cleaning materials and service packs. Manufacturers can also serve up relevant direct marketing messages in the moment, based on buyer behaviour, to increase total order values.

With intelligent systems such as SAP CX, manufacturers can leverage the data stored in their SAP ERP system to enhance their buyers’ experience. By analysing the data from online and offline orders, they can spot patterns and better understand their customers’ buying behaviour. Surprisingly, some manufacturers are still of the mindset that they don’t need a CX channel yet. Typically, we come across this when the manufacturer is solely selling through resellers. This is potentially a little short-sighted as many of their competitors are already taking advantage of the developments in CX technology to provide a ‘B2B2C’ business model.

One of our manufacturing customers make specialised toolkits and storage solutions for mechanics and craftsmen and then sells these through resellers. They use SAP CX technology to provide a B2B2C experience. The manufacturer didn’t want every resale outlet to have an e-commerce site of their own. They realised that if their products were sold through amateur-looking eBay stores and the like, it could degrade their brand. SAP Commerce Cloud is empowering them to own the channel and is also helping to increase sales for their resellers. The toolkit manufacturer has their own branded site which the end customers are buying through without the manufacturer going B2C.

Their ‘B2B2C’ website either points the end customer to their local store or takes the order online and then delivers to that store where the customer completes payment with the reseller in the usual way. Therefore, the manufacturer is using their CX platform to provide a professional, high-quality B2C environment without cutting out their resellers.

You can view the earlier blogs in the CX series or watch our webinar “Learning from Experience: B2B Commerce in Manufacturing” to hear about the CX challenges facing the Manufacturing sector.