翻译天堂  2016-10-04

Stop Treating B2B Customers Like Digital Novices

When your laptop malfunctions, you usually can find a fix on an Apple or Dell user forum within minutes. Consumer-facing (B2C) companies likethese and many others have long realized the power of online digitalnetworks to address the questions or issues of their customers. As Bernard Hours, the former COO of Danone, put it, “On the internet, a brand has to become a person, to listen and to answer questions.” 当你的笔记本电脑出问题时，你往往能在几分钟内就在苹果或是戴尔的用户论坛里找到一个解决方法。像苹果和戴尔这样面向用户（B2C）的公司，很早就意识到了线上数字网络在解决客户问题与需求方面的强大力量。正如达能集团的前首席运营官Bernard Hours所说，“在网络上，一个品牌必须像一个人那样来倾听和回答问题。”

In the B2B world, though, the experience is very different. Companies have been reluctant to open up to their customer networks and rely on the traditional way of engaging with prospects and customers. If you have a problem with your industrial cement mixer, you usually have only two options: read the manual or call your sales rep.然而，在B2B世界，情况却十分不同。公司并不情愿向他们的客户网敞开心扉，而是采取传统方式来与潜在客户和现有顾客接洽。如果你对工业用水泥搅拌机有问题，你往往只有两个选择：阅读用户手册，或是找销售员打听情况。

But B2Bcustomers are mobile, fully engaged in social media, and well educated:

94% of B2B buyers conduct online research before deciding on a purchase

97% of professional buyers believe that user-generated content, such as peer reviews and group discussion, is more credible than content provided by the company itself.

但B2B客户是很灵活的，他们擅长使用社交媒体，且受教育水平颇高：

1.  94%的B2B客户会在决定购买之前进行线上调研；

2.  97%的专业买手相信，像是同行评议和小组研讨之类的用户生成内容比由企业本身提供的资料内容更为可靠。

Unfortunately, the few B2B companies that have responded to this reality by embracing customer networks usually have just copied a successful B2C formula. This is seldom a good approach. 不幸的是，通过引入客户网络来着手面对这一现实的少数B2B企业，往往只是复制了一个成功的B2C模式，而这并非良策。

For instance, a large European packaging company wanted to connect more effectively with its 10,000 corporate customers. It had been reasonably successful in dealing with the 10% of large customers who drive 90% of revenue. These 1,000 customers had been assigned account managers, and sales people were keen to answer their questions and return their calls. But the company’s approach to dealing with the hundreds of questions from the 9,000 smaller accounts was less effective, relying on a FAQ section on its webpage — and busy sales people who often simply did not return calls from thesecustomers. 比如说，一家大型的欧洲包装公司想要更有效地与它的10000名企业客户交流。它已经与带来90%收益的那10%的大客户成功地保持了良好关系。这家公司为这1000家客户配备了专门的客户经理，以及热情回答问题和回电话的销售人员。但公司处理剩下9000家较小的客户的大量问题的途径，就不那么有效率了。公司往往只依赖于网页上的FAQ部分，忙碌的销售人员常常根本就不回这些客户的电话。

To tackle the issue, the company created a self-help customer community. Since it already was a Salesforce.com customer, it used the Salesforce Community Cloud as its platform provider. 要解决这一问题，这家公司创造了一个自主帮助的客户社区。由于它本身就已经是Salesforce.com的客户，它选取了Salesforce社区云作为它的平台支持者。

The initiative was a total failure: No one engaged, and the company shut it down a short time later. It was not that Salesforce.com didn’t offer the standard features, such as FAQs, platforms for user forums, and integration with the company’s webpage. The problem was that the system had not been not built with the user in mind. 这一尝试彻底失败了：根本没人参与进来，所以公司很快就关闭了它。这并非是因为Salesforce.com无法提供FAQ、用户论坛以及公司网页融入这些标准功能，问题在于，这一系统的建立，并没有完全地考虑到客户需求。

What should the company have done instead? Our research into successful examples of B2B online networks using digital platforms suggests there are three key elements: reputation, wide topic focus, and open integration. 这家公司应该做些什么呢？我们对成功地使用数字平台的B2B线上网络的研究表明，有三点关键因素：声誉，广泛的话题关注点，开放集成。

Reputation. What really motivates professionals to participate actively on an online network is whether their activity builds their reputation in a larger community. The German software giant SAP, for example, saw strong increase in user activities on its Community Network after it introduced reputation points. The points are awarded by peers in appreciation of a contributor’s good content and insights. The crucial factor was that the points weren’t seen as “gamified” badges for engagement; they really meant something to the users and the ecosystem. Reputation points even had an impact outside the community, as they were cited by users in job applications in the industry.1.  声誉。真正驱使专业人士积极参与线上网络交流的动力，在于他们的行为是否能够在一个更大的集体内建立起自己的声誉。比如说，德国的软件巨头SAP发现，在它引进“声誉点”这一制度后，它的社区网络实现了很大程度的用户活动增长。当其他人欣赏某位贡献者的内容与见解时，就能够为他（她）送出点数。关键在于，这些点数并非是用来证明参与度的“游戏式”的徽章，它们对于用户和这整个生态系统有着真切的意义。“声誉点”甚至在社区之外也有着影响，比如说用户能够在这个行业内找工作时将其作为自身能力的证明。

Wide topic focus.B2B firms should try to be broad and inclusive in the topic selection of their online community, going beyond their actual products. Take the case of VMware, a virtualization and cloud computing software provider for IBM-compatible computers and servers. Its community has become a hub for knowledge exchange around cloud virtualization, and now has more than 2 million active users. VMware’s strategy was to allow users to expand topics and go beyond what the company found interesting. Consumers need to be in charge of topics and conversations, and the company needs to be OK with this small loss of control.2.  广泛的话题关注点。B2B公司需要为线上社区选取尽可能广泛和包罗万象的话题，要超越于本身实际的产品。以VMware为例，它是IBM兼容计算机与服务器的虚拟化与云计算的软件供应商。它的社区已经成为了围绕云计算与虚拟化的一个知识交流中心，拥有超过200万名活跃的用户。VMware的策略，是让用户能够拓展话题，而非只是局限于公司本身的兴趣所在。要让用户来掌控话题与对话，而公司必须要能够接受这一控制权的小小缺失。

Open integration. Great B2Bdigital networks don’t try to stand alone, but rather try to be open and integrated with other networks. The UK Transport System’s IMExchange is a case in point. IMExchange has partnered with many events, jobs sites, and industry associations that use its Q&A database as the central hub, bringing the entire transport industry together. Each partner organization keeps its own “front door” to IMExchange, painted in its own look, but they all are connected underneath. Facilitating a win-win for everyone helped IMExchange to achieve 15% monthly growth in questions on the Q&A platform, as well as 23% growth in answered questions, achieving overall a 35% monthly engagement rates by its users. This high stickiness of users stems from the fact that users see IMExchange not as a company silo but as an integrated element in the development of their own transport careers. 3.  开放集成。好的B2B数字网络并非独善其身，而是要面对其他网络持开放集成的态度。英国交通系统的IMExcnage恰好是这样一个例子。IMExchange已经与很多将它的问答数据库作为中心枢纽的活动、求职网站与业界协会合作，将整个交通行业整合在一起。每一个合作的组织都有各自连向IMEchange的“门”，尽管看上去各不相同，但归根结底它们都是彼此相连的。为所有人创造双赢机会，让IMExchange在问答平台上的问题实现了15%的月增长，已解答问题则实现了23%的月增长，用户的月度参与度达到了35%。这样高的用户粘着性的根源，在于用户并非将IMExchange视为单独一家公司式的孤岛，而是他们自身在交通行业职业发展道路上不可分割的一部分。

Just like consumers, B2Bcustomers prefer researching their product and service purchases and addressing their technical issues through peer interactions. B2Bsuppliers that don’t realize this will quickly find their customers migrating to competitors that do. Jumping on the digital network bandwagon will enable B2Bcompanies to retain the new generation of buyers and users and offer a better customer service experience. 正如普通消费者，B2B客户也倾向于通过同行互动来对要购买的产品与服务进行调查，来解决技术性问题。没有意识到这点的B2B供应商很快会发现，它们的客户将流向意识到了这点的竞争者们。搭上数字网络的快车，将使得B2B企业能够留住新时代的买家与用户，提供更好的客户服务体验。