Customer Experience Strategy: Everything Your B2B Sales Team Is Missing

For B2B sales leaders, customer experience challenges are all too familiar.

Whether it’s prospects abandoning your sales process halfway through due to poor communication; missing follow-up meetings because your CRM didn’t send automated reminders; or losing existing customers to competitors because your renewal process lacks personalisation—these experiences stand out, but not in a good way.

They’re the ones that damage your pipeline, hurt your retention rates, and ultimately impact your revenue growth.

The point? Customer experience strategy is crucial for B2B sales teams not only to acquire customers, but also to retain them, gain referrals, and ultimately scale revenue predictably.

But having an effective customer experience strategy in place is a lot easier said than done. That’s where this guide comes in.

What is the customer experience strategy?

A customer experience strategy is a comprehensive plan that defines how your organisation will deliver value and create positive interactions at every touchpoint throughout the customer journey. It serves as a roadmap for aligning your sales, marketing, and customer success teams around a unified approach to customer engagement.

Unlike reactive customer service, a customer experience strategy is proactive and strategic, focusing on designing intentional experiences that drive business outcomes like increased retention, higher deal values, and faster sales cycles.

Research shows the significant impact of strategic customer experience initiatives. Customer-obsessed organisations report 41% faster revenue growth, 49% faster profit growth, and 51% better customer retention compared to their non-customer-obsessed counterparts.

How Revenue Grid Helps

Revenue Grid’s platform enables B2B sales teams to execute customer experience strategies effectively by capturing 100% of customer interactions across all touchpoints. The platform provides 360-degree pipeline visibility and AI-driven insights that help teams personalise every interaction and identify opportunities to enhance the customer journey. See how it works

What is customer experience?

Put simply, customer experience is the impression people are left with when dealing with your company; it’s what they think of you afterward.

And it’s not exclusive to the times you actually speak with them either.

Think of every touchpoint a prospect encounters during your sales process, for example. Whether it be your website navigation, demo booking process, proposal delivery, contract negotiation, onboarding experience, ongoing support, etc… Each of these plays a role in a person’s impression of your company—and ultimately, whether or not their experience with you is positive.

Customer experience vs. customer service.

Customer experience is a holistic term covering every aspect of a user’s journey with your company from discovery, to eventually becoming a customer, to sticking around as one.
Customer experience is made up of two primary factors:

People:

how satisfied is the user after speaking with a person from your company?

Product:

does the product meet (or better yet, exceed) their expectations?

Customer service is one component of this overall customer experience.
It’s the “people” factor.
It’s those few touchpoints where a rep is needed to provide assistance to the user. This includes phone calls, live chat, and email as well as any other sales engagement efforts your reps make to turn those users into customers.

For example, calling a prospect to discuss their specific requirements or scheduling a product demo is a customer service interaction. Or, in the case of sales engagement, getting a lead to agree to set up a discovery call with you.

Makes sense, right?
In the past, success in the sales department was determined by customer service metrics like the number of emails sent out or phone calls made in a day. But those days are behind us. Customer experience has added a whole new layer of requirements to the sales role.

Quality > quantity has never held more true.

Why is customer experience important?

Because the better your customer experience is, the more customers and repeat business you’ll get (and more revenue you can generate).

In B2B sales, buyers have numerous options to choose from, so you actually need to be offering something your competitors aren’t. Then once you do get people on board, realise they can leave just as quickly if you’re not giving them the experience they want (and deserve!) so you’ve got to ensure the calibre of customer experience you’re providing is continuous, even after the sale.

Because the better your customer experience is, the more customers and repeat business you’ll get (and more revenue you can generate)

A positive experience creates loyal customers, which then leads to significant referral growth and enhanced credibility through strong reviews. In the case of B2B SaaS companies that use a subscription-based revenue model, it creates repeat business, increases retention, and reduces churn.

If you’re not convinced yet, here are some more reasons why your company should care about customer experience:

B2B buyers aren’t just paying for products anymore—they’re paying for a positive experience.

Think investing in customer experience is a waste of money? Think again.

According to a survey by PwC, 73% of consumers say customer experience is a big part of their decision-making process; consumers also said they’re willing to pay for a good experience, with 43% saying they’ll pay more for convenience and 42% saying they’ll pay for warm, friendly customer service.

• For Gen Z, convenience and customer appreciation rank highly on their list of customer experience expectations.
• Nine in 10 millennials will take action after having a bad online customer experience, such as telling friends, stopping purchases from the company, and posting reviews on a review site or social media.
• Boomers are 40% more likely to abandon their cart because they’re unhappy with the customer experience.

Well, it’s unanimous. Having a good product isn’t good enough anymore. B2B buyers are paying for a good experience too.

And that goes for all age groups.

Good customer experience can increase your customers’ lifetime value (LTV).

Customers want to feel heard and understood—before, during and after they’ve purchased from you. Achieve that, and you’ve maximised your chances of keeping those customers for life. Plus, they’ll be more likely to refer you to all their friends and colleagues in the industry.

Get this: according to an Accenture Strategy’s 2016 report, “Digital Disconnect in Customer Engagement,” poor customer service (one of the primary building blocks of customer experience) drove 52% of respondents to switch service providers, with 68% of those people saying they wouldn’t go back.

That report was based on responses from almost 25,000 customers in 11 industries across the globe. The importance of customer experience is a worldwide thing.

Customer experience gives you an edge over your competitors.

In the past five years alone, Google searches for the term “customer experience” has nearly doubled. In other words, more and more companies are seeing the importance of it.

Source

Another fact: if customer experience was easy, everyone would do it.

Putting in the effort to perfect your customer experience will set you apart from others in your industry.

That means it’s not enough to merely fulfil the minimum requirements of a sales call or just do whatever it takes to close a deal. Sales reps should be aiming to go above and beyond a customer’s expectations and working to make every experience a positive one.

Key components of a customer experience strategy

A successful customer experience strategy consists of several interconnected components that work together to deliver consistent, valuable interactions throughout the customer journey:

• Customer Understanding: Deep insights into your target audience, their pain points, goals, and preferred communication styles
• Journey Mapping: Visual representation of every touchpoint and interaction customers have with your organisation
• Omnichannel Delivery: Consistent experience across all channels and platforms
• Personalisation: Tailored interactions based on customer data and preferences
• Employee Engagement: Ensuring your team is equipped and motivated to deliver exceptional experiences
• Measurement & Analytics: Continuous monitoring and improvement based on customer feedback and performance metrics
• Technology Integration: Tools and platforms that enable seamless customer interactions and data capture

Research demonstrates the significant impact of structured customer experience programmes. Companies with formal customer journey management programs achieve 54% greater return on marketing investment, over 10 times improvement in the cost of customer service, and 3.5 times greater revenue from customer referrals compared to organisations without such programmes.

How to measure where your customer experience level stands:

It’s important to measure your customer experience so you can track its improvement (or discourse) over time. This metric will also tell you whether or not your efforts to improve it are successful or need tweaking.

Being that customer experience is a qualitative metric by nature, however, figuring out how to quantify it for the sake of measurement can be… challenging.
Luckily, customer experience pros over the years have figured it out for us. Here are four ways you can measure your customer experience:

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

How it works:
This customer experience scoring method is a quiz that asks users, “how likely are you to refer our brand to a friend or colleague?” then has them answer by selecting a number between 1 and 10 (or 1-5, 1-100, etc.).

When to use it:
When you want to gauge your customer experience as a whole; if the majority of your responses are in the top 90-100% “very likely to recommend” zone, it’s safe to assume your customers are pretty happy. Otherwise, something needs fixing.

Example:

Source

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

How it works:
CSAT works by asking customers to rate them on a point scale, with the lowest number equating to, “very unsatisfied” and the highest meaning, “very satisfied.” These surveys can also be as simple as asking the customer to select yes or no.

When to use it:
While NPS is used to get customers’ opinions on your brand as a whole (and how likely they are to recommend it), CSAT tests are used to get customer feedback on specific aspects of the customer experience.
For example, many FAQ articles have a CSAT survey at the bottom that looks something like this: “Did you find this article helpful? Select Yes or No.” This helps companies determine which FAQs are most helpful (so they can place them up higher on their Help page) and which ones need to be reworked.

Another example:

Source

Time to Resolution (TTR)

How it works:
Time to Resolution—as you might’ve guessed by the name—is the average length of time it takes your customer service team to resolve an issue for a customer. The clock begins as soon as a customer first brings the issue to your attention and stops once it’s been solved and the customer’s been notified.

You can measure this in either business hours or days, depending on the complexity of your issues and your company’s typical service level agreement (SLA).

To average out your numbers and get your TTR score, add up all these times and divide them by the total number of issues solved.

When to use it:
Considering wait times have a heavy weighing on a customer’s experience with your brand, it’s definitely worth measuring this metric regularly and working to continuously improve it.

Example:

Source

Customer Effort Score (CES)

How it works:
Similar to the CSAT, CES asks customers to rate on a 5 or a 7-point scale, but instead of rating their satisfaction, they’re rating how easy it was for them to solve their issues. So, 1 would mean “very difficult,” and 5 would mean “very easy.”

When to use it:
CES is great to implement after a customer service interaction. You’ve probably heard this type of survey used at the end of the phone call after calling your bank, for example. Another good time to use them is when you’ve launched a new product feature. Ask your customers to rate you both before and after the new feature launch to see if the CES improves post-launch.

Example:

Source

Measuring ROI of Your Customer Experience Strategy

Research shows the direct link between improved customer satisfaction and business outcomes. Elevating satisfaction from poor to excellent can reduce churn by 75% and nearly triple revenue growth over three years, showcasing that real value comes from turning CX insights into action that drives meaningful improvement.

How to build and implement a customer experience strategy:

Once you’ve benchmarked where your customer experience level stands, you’re probably going to want to know how to build a comprehensive strategy. Here’s a step-by-step approach to developing and implementing an effective customer experience strategy:

1. Define your customer experience vision.

A customer experience vision is a statement that acts as a guide to how your business treats its prospects. Think of it as your “vows” to your customers.

Go ahead, write them down.

Then, once you’ve got your vision down, list some actions your employees can take to fulfil it. Here’s an example (you can check out the full deck here):

Source

These vows should be integrated into your company’s culture—they’re not just for your customer success reps. Product managers, marketing teams, sales managers, etc… everyone needs to know what the expectations are for how your company treats its customers.

Incorporate it into your organisation’s onboarding plan as well as ongoing training and hang it up somewhere your whole team can see it.

2. Know who your customers are.

You can’t even begin to design a customer experience if you don’t know who you’re designing it for. To make a good customer experience, you’ll need to define the following first:

• Buyer persona(s)
• A customer journey map

Buyer persona.
Buyer personas are detailed profiles of your ideal customers. They include demographic and psychographic information that marketing and sales teams can use to better tailor their approach and messaging.

Source

Customer journey map
A customer journey map is a visual representation of all the interactions a user makes with your brand. The point is to find out what that user’s end goal is and whether or not your product or service can or will help them achieve it.

3. Personalise touchpoints to your customers.

In B2B sales, personalisation has become table stakes. Prospects expect communications tailored to their specific industry, role, and challenges. Generic outreach simply doesn’t cut through the noise anymore.

Personalisation is great because it makes customers feel special. According to a survey by Evergage, 88% of companies that incorporate personalisation in their sales strategy “realised a measurable lift in business results” and 61% said they saw “improved overall customer experience.”
There are so many different ways to personalise things, and it makes a drastic improvement to customer experience and helps you build relationships with your customers as well, they see you more as a business partner than just a service provider.

Personalisation doesn’t have to be scary, cost a bunch of money, or require complex technology either. For example, with the right tools, email personalisation can make a significant impact on a customer’s experience.

An example of a personalised email – Revenue Grid
An example of a personalised email

4. Create an emotional connection with your customers.

According to a study by the Harvard Business Review, emotionally engaged customers are three times more likely to buy from you again, and at least three times more likely to recommend your company to others.

So how does one create an emotional connection with their customers, exactly? Here are some pointers:

Be human.
When you speak with dozens of customers daily, it can be easy to become almost robotic when speaking with them. Don’t do that. Remember you’re talking to real people, so talk to them like you would a colleague—don’t just read off scripts and canned responses.

Be empathetic.
When customers are talking to you about the issues they’re facing, whether it’s with your product or other business problems, listen to them actively. Read their body language or tone of voice if you’re on the phone to pick up on what emotions they’re going through, and aim to truly understand what it is they’re feeling rather than merely waiting for them to finish talking so you can insert your sales pitch.

Keep your promises.
Relationships are built on trust, and your relationships with your customers are no different. Whether it’s honouring your return policy, agreeing to waive a fee, or just telling a customer you’ll call them back in an hour, stick to it.

A great example of a company that created an emotional connection strong enough to last a lifetime is the tale of Joshie the Giraffe and the Ritz Carlton. If you haven’t read it, you need to. Here’s the link.

5. When customers do complain, hear them out.

Last but most certainly not least, the single most important thing you can do to improve your customer experience is…

Ready for it?

Listen to your customers.

While the customer experience scoring methods we mentioned earlier are great for quantifying data, the qualitative data you get from direct feedback from customers is where you’ll find the most accurate, actionable advice.

Chances are, your sales reps are hearing feedback—both positive and negative—from customers on the regular, but there’s no process in place to get that feedback to the people who can do something about them.

For example, if a customer is complaining about a broken integration, there isn’t much your front-line staff can do, but your developers will definitely want to know about it. Or, say you’re getting lots of complaints about a specific product feature; best believe there’s a product manager who would pay money for information like that—and your company already has it, for free.

So, if you don’t already, put together a process for your front-line staff to pass along feedback to the appropriate channels.
Here are some ideas:

• An internal social media account (like Facebook)
• Slack channel
• Ticketing system (like ZenDesk)

Ready to Transform Your Customer Experience?

See how Revenue Grid helps B2B sales teams deliver seamless, personalised customer journeys that drive retention and growth. The platform captures every interaction, provides actionable insights, and enables teams to execute customer experience strategies at scale.

Book Your Personalised Demo

Digital customer experience strategy

Digital customer experience strategy focuses on optimising interactions across digital channels and touchpoints. In B2B sales, this encompasses everything from your website and email communications to CRM interactions and virtual meetings.

Key elements of a digital customer experience strategy include:

• Omnichannel Integration: Seamless experience across all digital platforms and channels
• Self-Service Options: Empowering customers to find information and complete tasks independently
• Automation & AI: Using technology to personalise interactions and streamline processes
• Mobile Optimisation: Ensuring all touchpoints work flawlessly on mobile devices
• Data-Driven Personalisation: Leveraging customer data to deliver relevant, timely experiences
• Real-Time Support: Providing immediate assistance through chat, video, or other digital channels

The digital transformation of customer experience has accelerated significantly, with B2B buyers now expecting the same level of digital sophistication they experience as consumers. This means your digital customer experience strategy must be comprehensive, integrated, and continuously evolving.

How Revenue Grid Enables Digital CX

Revenue Grid’s platform is built for the digital-first B2B environment. It integrates natively with email systems, CRMs, and communication platforms to capture every digital interaction automatically. The platform’s AI capabilities enable real-time personalisation and automated workflows that enhance the digital customer experience without requiring manual intervention from sales teams. Discover digital CX capabilities

Best practices for customer experience strategy

Implementing a successful customer experience strategy requires following proven best practices that ensure consistency, effectiveness, and continuous improvement:

• Make Interactions Easy: Reduce friction at every touchpoint and eliminate unnecessary steps in your processes
• Maintain Consistency: Ensure uniform experience quality across all channels and team members
• Leverage Technology: Use automation and AI to enhance, not replace, human interactions
• Build Customer Communities: Create opportunities for customers to connect with each other and your brand
• Empower Your Team: Provide employees with the tools, training, and authority to resolve customer issues
• Act on Feedback: Implement systematic processes for collecting, analysing, and acting on customer input
• Measure Continuously: Regular monitoring and adjustment based on performance metrics and customer feedback

Remember, as one industry expert noted: “One great interaction cannot save a broken experience.” This emphasises the importance of designing the entire customer journey, not just optimising individual touchpoints.

How Revenue Grid Supports Best Practices

Revenue Grid’s platform embodies these best practices by providing a unified view of all customer interactions, enabling consistent communication across teams, and automating routine tasks so sales professionals can focus on building relationships. The platform’s analytics capabilities ensure teams can measure and improve their customer experience delivery continuously. See best practices in action

Outstanding customer service is rooted in an exceptional customer experience.

We’ve established what customer experience is, why it matters for B2B sales teams, and how to improve the experience you offer your customers.

It isn’t something you’ll master in one day. Customer experience is a continuous process of constantly measuring, analysing, and improving things over time.

The good news? The reduced churn, increased customer loyalty and referrals and, of course, increased revenue will be worth it.