Customer centricity in B2B: How manufacturers are meeting rising customer expectations

The bottleneck of Customer Centricity: What slows down many manufacturing companies

According to McKinsey, customer-oriented companies achieve twice as much sales growth as their competitors. However, only a good 15 percent of all companies systematically incorporate customer knowledge into their decisions. Those who invest in customer centricity with foresight can exploit differentiation potential and strategic competitive advantages.

However, companies in the manufacturing sector face a double challenge: on the one hand, their customers’ expectations in terms of speed, transparency and digital services are increasing. On the other hand, internal processes and systems are often not designed to meet these expectations.

This is where many manufacturing companies fail:

• Fragmented system landscapes: commerce, ERP and product data are not cleanly integrated.
• Manual processes: Sales and service processes are inefficient and prone to errors.
• Low user acceptance: New digital solutions are not accepted by customers and internal teams.

If you want to meet rising customer expectations, you have to overcome these hurdles and consider customer centricity from the outset.

What does Customer Centricity mean?

When we talk about customer centricity, it’s not just about a better user experience. It’s about really understanding customer needs and translating them into strategies, processes and technologies. Customer centricity must be visible at every step of the value chain.

What customer centricity means in concrete terms for manufacturing companies can be defined by three principles:

• End-to-end mindset: Customers expect simple and seamless processes from initial contact to ordering and delivery. This requires end-to-end integration of commerce, ERP and product data management systems.
• Data quality as a basis: Automation and scalability depend on how precise and consistent the underlying data is.
• Personalization: Standard functions are not enough to deal with complex initial situations and requirements in the B2B environment.

7 practical tips for Customer Centricity in B2B

Our practical tips show how these principles can be put into practice and how customer centricity can be sustainably anchored in the company:

Best practice: How Elementar implements Customer Centricity with valantic

One example of successful customer centricity in the manufacturing industry and the return on investment (ROI) of customer-centric initiatives is the project at Elementar Analysensysteme GmbH. The leading provider of high-quality analytical devices faced similar challenges to many other companies in its sector:

• The previous commerce platform was technically outdated and worked in isolation from other systems.
• Orders were mainly placed manually by email or telephone.
• In some cases, customers had trouble finding the right products quickly.

The solution: Together with valantic, Elementar developed an internationally focused B2B portal that consistently focused on the needs of its customers.

Methodical approach: Customer feedback as a basis

In order to understand users’ expectations in detail and depth, Elementar and valantic carried out targeted customer surveys as a first step. The feedback formed the basis for the strategic direction and development of the B2B portal and helped to concretize core requirements for the new service platform. This allowed central criteria to be prioritized, including

• Efficiency through intuitive usability
• Transparency through real-time synchronization of information
• Personalization through workflows tailored to the customer

During implementation, the B2B portal was tailored precisely to the customer’s needs and optimized for their requirements:

• Orders are now fully digitized and can be processed much faster.
• Customers receive real-time information on prices, products, and availability.
• Features such as personalized bookmarks and the new offering feature enhance the customer experience.

The result: Greater efficiency, scalability & customer satisfaction

Thanks to its consistent customer focus, Elementar has recorded measurable successes from the project:

• Fewer manual support requests: automated functions have significantly reduced the effort required to process recurring support tickets and tasks.
• Higher customer satisfaction: Customers receive precise information on products, prices and availability more quickly, which contributes to a high level of acceptance and use of the service platform.
• Scalability: The B2B portal can be rolled out internationally and flexibly expanded to include additional services.
• Increased efficiency: The workload for internal teams is significantly reduced through integration into the existing system landscape.

Conclusion: Customer Centricity in manufacturing is a strategic success factor

The success of digital transformation projects in the manufacturing industry is not just a question of technology. It requires a holistic strategic rethink – away from siloed solutions and towards data-driven approaches that consistently focus on the customer. Companies that align their strategy, processes and technologies with the customer with foresight will not only create a better user experience, but will also measure quantifiable effects in terms of efficiency, scalability and growth.