Challenges of collecting B2B customer insight from multiple channels

The purpose of the paper is to study the challenges that B2B companies are confronting when trying to understand their current and potential customers through digital channels and utilizing these viewpoints in innovation development. The paper combines literature on innovation, B2B customer experience and challenges related to digital channel usage. The study comprises 17 qualitative customer interviews and a web survey for 167 customers. The paper discusses why the customers want or do not want to express their needs in digital channels and if some of those reasons are dependent on sellers’ or customers’ actions. As a result, a categorisation of buyers according to their role in buying and social media usage at work is presented. Identified challenges are grouped into data, process or management challenges.