If you’re a manufacturer who hasn’t yet invested in improving the customer experience, it’s time for you to catch up. More than half of manufacturing executives say customer experience is one of their top priorities going forward, according to a 2020 survey of manufacturing executives conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. The reality is that manufacturers are increasingly under pressure to replicate the frictionless, cutting-edge customer experiences created by Amazon and similar, highly effective B2C industry titans. Customers today expect that manufacturers can deliver seamless, intuitive, self-directed buying experiences just like Amazon. And it’s not just “customers,” but your customers—customers who are driving demand upstream. These customers assume they’ll be able to access all relevant information and resources at the click of a button. And when they need customer service, they expect to get efficient, rapid resolutions every time.

There’s not a single solution for manufacturers to create these best-in-class customer experiences. To build the necessary in-house capacity and resources, manufacturers need to be prepared to make strategic, long-term investments in multiple key areas of their business. In this blog post, we’re going to explore four essential areas every forward-looking manufacturer should be investing in to create frictionless customer experiences:

Integrating technologies that proactively connect you to customers

Manufacturers’ interactions with customers have traditionally been limited in nature and—more often than not—initiated by the customer, not the manufacturer. Under this outdated relationship paradigm, customers typically are the ones to reach out to the manufacturer—to get quotes, to request product demos, to order replacement parts, to get service for existing products. However, manufacturers no longer need to sit passively by as they wait for customers to contact them. Thanks to…

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