Ways to Improve Your B2B Customer Engagement with APIs

B2C and B2B engagement isn’t exactly the same, so if you’re marketing B2B this post will cover some great ways to improve your B2B customer engagement using APIs.

Looking to improve your business’s customer engagement?

Who isn’t, right?

A great way to differentiate yourself from your competition is to implement APIs or Application Programming Interfaces into your customer service systems.

B2B marketing is often more informational than B2C because purchasing decisions take longer and are heavily based on ROI, or return on investment. ROI is something that the everyday person doesn’t usually consider with every purchase. B2B marketing decisions are also often more complex because they require input from stakeholders in different operational departments.

Customer engagement is often the main focus in B2C interactions and is mistakenly overlooked in B2B marketing strategies.

Actively working to keep clients well informed and valued helps companies stand out, fosters important relationships, and increases customer loyalty. APIs jump-start new revenue streams and provide businesses with key consumer insights. The main benefit of using APIs is a streamlined business experience for both you and the businesses you cater to. They help effectively manage inventory, distribution, and purchasing by integrating business, supplier, and logistics partner systems.

Here are some great ways to implement an API-driven approach that will help improve the overall quality of your customer engagement.

Smooth Out the Login Process

Whenever you log in to third-party apps or websites with your Facebook password instead of creating a new profile, you are utilizing an API. For instance, by using Facebook or Twitter API integration, companies can access more information about consumers. With the extra information gathered, businesses can predict purchasing behavior and be prepared to suggest products and services that match their needs and interests.

Studies have shown that just by integrating Google’s Sign-In APIs and services on your app or website your customer conversions could improve by up to 50%.

Streamline Payments

APIs can also help streamline payment processes. Creating a custom payment interface out of thin air isn’t always necessary when you can install an API for checkouts. Working in conjunction with APIs from apps like Paypal and Venmo eliminates the need for consumers to re-enter their credit card information. Providing customers with a quicker, more trustworthy, and simplified checkout experience will be sure to keep them coming back.

Update Shipping Tracking

Give your B2B customer service a competitive edge by offering quick and reliable shipping, providing accurate and easy to find updates. You can benefit by using multi-carrier shipping APIs to create labels and quickly validate shipping addresses to help fulfill orders. You can offer customers peace of mind by using shipping APIs that offer price estimations and live tracking for shipments. For example, the UPS tracking API (available in over 40 countries) can track shipments from within your companies eCommerce site. Details include scanned location tracking and delivery confirmation.

Polish Customer Communication

Using APIs will help effortlessly revamp your customer service system. Most businesses feel that the level of customer service they offer is up to par, whereas consumers consistently highlight customer service as the area of business they are least satisfied with. Consumers can be picky.

For instance, studies have shown that 42% of consumers say that they prefer businesses where live chat is offered because it eliminates having to wait on hold.

And most consumers are significantly more satisfied after their live chat interactions than in comparison to voice calls, email, and even direct messaging over social media. However, fully automated services are impersonal and often leave people even more frustrated. Using APIs for live chats is just one of the ways to increase the level of humanity and personalization that you put into client correspondence without making a lot of extra work for you.

There are endless types of APIs available and usually, the more you can integrate the better. With the increase of cloud computing in the B2B industry, companies exchange more data and services than ever before. Helping to ease friction and maximize the level of personalization APIs offer a proven advantage to companies looking to improve their customer engagement. A long term customer may let a poor experience slide one time but the next negative experience may lead them to switch to the competition with little warning. APIs not only eliminate the chance of human error but they free up valuable time to focus on other tasks. These are just some of the ways you can avoid complacency, stay engaged and remain aware of how your relationships are progressing by using.

Online business is only going to get more user-centric, so adapting your business to become more personalized and ultimately as user friendly as possible is the best way to improve customer engagement. APIs will allow you to stay ahead of the curve.

How are you using APIs for your business?