This text is an appeal. The appeal is: Let's not make the mistake that B2B companies 'traditionally' like to make. I'm talking about neglecting the user or customer perspective! We can definitely no longer afford to do that. The reason for this is simple, but we should keep reminding ourselves of it: The average B2B customer does not simply exist in a vacuum, but is also a private consumer at the same time. Today, this means that they have certain user experiences and expectations that they have developed with services and brands such as Netflix, Amazon, Apple and others.

The consequence must be: If you want to make your B2B customers happy, you should urgently give the highest possible priority to optimizing your UX (user experience). How did we come to this conclusion? We bring suppliers and buyers of metal parts together on our platform. We know that we have to offer buyers a perfect ordering process and that using our platform must also be easy and time-saving for suppliers. To summarize: we need a modern UX design. In the following, I would like to give you four reasons why this is the case and why they are transferable to many companies in industrial production.

Usability as a sales factor

As explained at the beginning, today's B2B users are considerably more demanding than in the past. If you are operating in a competitive market environment, the usability of your own products - whether software, hardware or your own website - can become a decisive factor - the greater the competition, the more important user-friendliness or usability becomes. This is what customers are looking for today, as an important change has taken place in recent years: Whereas it used to be the customer's responsibility to operate a (digital) product, today it's the other way around. If there are problems, the fault lies with the usability of the solution.

Usability as a competitive advantage

Elegant design alone is not enough

The term user experience (UX) describes everything that has to do with a user's 'journey', i.e. their behavior. It is often used in connection with websites and apps, but in principle it can also be applied to other areas. Above all, it is about always seeing the product through the eyes of the customer and then deciding what is really needed and what needs to be improved.

A crucial point is that UX is much more than just the visual appearance. While the user interface is purely concerned with the appearance of the functions, usability is a sub-area of UX and merely a means to an end. With optimal usability, the aim is to make use simple and efficient. This can be achieved, for example, through fewer clicks to the destination or a clear language. In this respect, the UX as a whole is always more important than the user interface: If the user cannot achieve his or her goal, the most beautiful design is of no use.

Dialogue as the basis for an optimal user experience

If you want to establish a good UX, you should rely on a strong 'feedback culture' - regardless of the area. Customers interact with our products, websites and software solutions every day; on the one hand, this provides valuable direct feedback, both on the 'soundtrack' and in writing, but on the other hand, data is of course constantly being generated that you should keep an eye on.

With suitable analysis tools, for example, the entire user interaction on a website can be tracked and evaluated accordingly - completely anonymously, of course. Based on this data, it may be possible to determine which additional functions users would like. A basic solution is initially offered to test whether the customer really needs it: If there is a need, the solution can be iterated, i.e. improved in several development and design cycles and always with a view to the customer feedback that is regularly incorporated. In principle, the process can be compared to furnishing a new house: Once the basic furnishings such as the bed and fridge are in place, it's time to decorate.

To summarize: All customer feedback should be used to continuously develop and improve usability. Ideally, the usage data collected should be constantly analyzed.

Incorporating the perspectives of different user groups

In the B2B sector, there is often a special, 'typical' challenge for an optimal UX. This is because users often have very different levels of expertise. Although they are all professionals and experts, they differ quite drastically in terms of their knowledge base and expectations. The challenge for the design of a good user experience is then to find the balance between the necessary depth of information and the simplicity required for good usability.

Accordingly, it is important not only to put yourself in the user's shoes in general, but also to understand the different characteristics that you regularly encounter. To put it in a nutshell: Picking up all customers perfectly - that is the holy grail.

The user at the center

In the end, it should be clear what the appeal should be: It is high time that even in the B2B world (at least) those areas where customers interact with our products in the broadest sense are fully optimized for the best possible UX. Those who understand this can already gain a real competitive advantage today and, above all, will be well equipped for the future.

The author: Fabio Brito is Head of Product at Laserhub.