CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE 5 OPTIMIZATION By 2020, Walker predicts, customer experience will be the single biggest differentiator for B2B companies — above price or even product. By opening up lines of communication you wouldn’t have otherwise, Goldstein says, reviews provide an opportunity to improve your customer experience. To ensure your customer experience is the best it can be: • Draw on reviews to enhance your customer experience. If reviewers complain about a feature or don’t fully understand how to use your product, Lieb suggests creating content such as how-to videos, webinars or blog posts to educate them based on concerns from their reviews. • Use your responses to reviews to give prospects a taste of your customer experience. Since negative reviews attract more attention than positive ones, be sure to respond to criticism. When prospects see you engaging with an unhappy customer and trying to solve the problem, it sends a signal that your business is approachable and responsive. Thank users for positive reviews, and share advice that can help them get even more from your product. • Plumb both positive and negative reviews to honestly assess your customer experience strengths. Infer Inc., which provides AI applications for B2B sales and marketing, began using a third-party review site as a tool to gather more balanced feedback that included constructive criticism. The result is a genuine representation of the customer voice that tells both the company and its prospects what the customer experience is like. • Use reviews to complement customer survey data. If you already conduct customer surveys to measure customer experience, ratings and reviews can enhance those insights. Surveys ask questions you care about; reviews reveal what your customers care about. 7