A Lebanon, VA man recently made headlines when he paid the sales tax on his new car in pennies – 298,745 pennies to be exact. What made him resort to this extreme, attention-grabbing payment method? It was excessive frustration over a difficult customer service experience combined with limited payment options.
Virginia resident Nick Stafford wanted to ask his local DMV a quick “30-second” question, but had was unable to reach a person or get his question answered. He found it necessary to escalate his quest to get the phone numbers for DMV employees after filing a Freedom of Information act request and multiple lawsuits.
Some B2B suppliers underestimate the important the value of a good customer experience. In this instance, all it took was one unhappy resident complaining about a poor DMV experience to create dozens of national headlines. There are many reasons why government and municipal offices may choose not to improve their user experience, but at the end of the day it won’t harm them because users have no choice. Your business, on the other hand, may not survive negative headlines created by vocal unhappy customers.
Even worse are the quietly unhappy customers who don’t complain. Instead, they just stop buying from you. While it might be impossible to avoid the waiting in line at DMV or paying taxes, anyone can avoid businesses that offer poor customer service, make it difficult to pay invoices, and create frustration and confusion.
Organizations may operate in the B2B space, but the people who work at all levels of finance are at those organizations are consumers who appreciate great service and simple payment options in their personal lives. B2B customers who are unhappy don’t need to go to the extreme of paying an invoice with pennies. Instead, they take their business to your competition.
You can keep your customers happy and loyal with the right combination of technology and strategy. Take a moment to explore the biggest AR trends of 2017 and learn how to earn customer loyalty with a few quick user experience tips from Billtrust. Your customers will thank you in the form of loyalty, increased sales, and higher retention rates.