Dechay Watts on Why B2B Loyalty Depends on Operational Trust, Not Perks

Most manufacturers and distributors still think of loyalty as a rewards program: points, rebates, a discount for hitting a spending threshold. Dechay Watts, VP of Digital Marketing Services at Smith Commerce, argues that framing misses what actually keeps B2B customers coming back. In a recent conversation on the B2B eCommerce Show, Dechay and host Justin King unpacked why loyalty in B2B looks less like a punch card and more like an operating system built around a customer's job.

Dechay has spent more than two decades helping B2B, SaaS, and enterprise brands turn complex ideas into growth, first in PR and SEO, then as co-founder of the content marketing agency SPROUT Content before its acquisition by WPP. That background in data-driven content strategy shapes how she thinks about loyalty today, less as a marketing tactic and more as a business strategy that touches sales, IT, and customer service alike.

A Different Kind of Loyalty

The B2C playbook for loyalty runs on perks, discounts, and points designed to bring someone back. Dechay explained that B2B works differently. The goal isn't repeat purchases for their own sake. It's removing friction from the buyer's day-to-day operations so the relationship holds on its own.

"Rather than getting deep into how can I get somebody to come back and purchase again, it's about how can I make this journey and operations easier and smoother so that a B2B customer can do their job."

— Dechay Watts, VP of Digital Marketing Services, Smith Commerce

That distinction matters because B2B and B2C buying behave in fundamentally different ways, and a rewards mechanic built for one rarely translates to the other. Dechay pointed to procurement teams as an example. Their success is measured by efficiency, cost control, and operational continuity, so their loyalty tracks directly to how well a supplier helps them perform day to day. A supplier that reduces friction, even in small ways, earns more repeat business than one offering a percent-off coupon.

What the Data Tools Are Actually For

Much of the conversation centered on customer data platforms, or CDPs, and how B2B organizations often buy the technology without a clear plan for using it. Dechay described the practical difference from a CRM this way: a CDP unifies information from every touchpoint into one profile, while a CRM typically does not have that same unifying capacity.

"B2B companies are looking into CDPs, for example. They're wanting loyalty, but not really thinking through what that means."

— Dechay Watts

The bigger issue, in her experience, is not whether a company owns a CDP. It's whether anyone activates it. Enterprise teams often invest heavily in the platform itself, then leave marketing and sales out of the conversation about what to do with the data once it is centralized.

Personalization Is Not the Same as Segmentation

Dechay drew a clear line between the two. Segmentation groups customers by shared attributes, then messages to the group. Personalization uses the specific data available about an individual account, tied to what that account has actually done, to shape the next interaction, rather than relying on a generic persona built years earlier and never revisited.

Where AI Agents Fit In

Justin pushed the conversation toward automation, asking whether AI agents could handle the pattern recognition that loyalty programs depend on: knowing when a customer's equipment needs maintenance, when a part is due for reorder, when a service window is coming up. Dechay agreed this is squarely where AI adds value, suggesting agents could recommend reorders based on usage patterns or align recommendations to real-time inventory, prompting a reorder before the customer has to think about it.

"I encourage everybody listening, take any part of the business, any system, and ask ChatGPT or Claude what if you were to build this system AI first, what it would look like."

— Justin King, Host, The B2B eCommerce Show

Personalizing for a Committee, Not a Person

B2B purchases rarely come down to one buyer. A single account might involve someone in procurement, someone using the product day to day, and someone approving the budget, each with different needs. Dechay's answer to personalizing across a buying committee was to zoom out from the individual and focus on the role. The account, the contract, and the moment in time matter more than any one person's preferences, since that person can leave the role while the account remains.

She also pointed to something practical: getting people from IT, marketing, sales, and the business side in a room together to walk through the customer journey as a whole, rather than each team optimizing its own channel in isolation.

The Myth Worth Retiring

"Biggest myth is that loyalty is a bolt-on and not a business strategy."

— Dechay Watts

Her point throughout the conversation was consistent: loyalty is not a campaign that marketing runs on the side. It is built into how easy, or how difficult, a company makes it for a customer to do their job every single day.

About the Guest
Dechay Watts is VP of Digital Marketing Services at Smith Commerce, where she leads cross-functional teams spanning paid media, SEO, web experience, analytics, and content for B2B, SaaS, and enterprise brands. She previously co-founded SPROUT Content, a national content marketing agency later acquired by WPP.