Customer Value Management

Setting out to satisfy customers
The goal of customer value management

The goal of customer value management (CVM) is to deliver optimal value to customers — to align business metrics, improvement programs, capabilities, processes, organization and infrastructure with ‘customer-defined’ value. In other words, to create the kind of business that can deliver to customers exactly what ‘they’ want.

In this briefing, we introduce you to the definition and key concepts of CVM. We show you how to justify the CVM approach, how to design a CVM process — including the main steps in the process — and how to implement CVM. We explore the concept of customer value analysis and look at sources of CVM information. We suggest when you should use CVM and how to get started.

We think this briefing will be of particular value to CEOs and other senior managers who wish to:

  • Attract loyal customers and attain growth by competing on customer value.
  • Put into operation a customer-focused vision — such as becoming “the premier provider of our product or service in the eyes of our customers” — and create a strong competitive position for their company that yields substantial gains in profitability and market share.

This briefing is also aimed at marketing managers and others responsible for customer and opportunity management who are considering how their strategies and tactics can be deployed more effectively to improve their company’s competitive positioning. Finally, we think it is of value to IT managers who wish to leverage technology to maximize support provided to key customer-defined business offerings and capabilities.

The drivers behind CVM
One of the biggest problems facing senior managers today is how to attract customers and attain growth, often in an environment where products and prices among competitors are moving steadily closer together. Traditional bases for differentiation, such as product features or cost, are becoming less tangible. So senior management is forced to look for new ways to be attractive to a target market. Many companies now use the CVM approach to identify the “value” they can deliver, not only with products but also through processes and services. These companies engineer their business capabilities to deliver “ideal” customer-defined value at each customer interaction.

Because of the fast introduction of new technologies and resultant rapid changes in customers’ perceived “needs” and “values”, companies are institutionalizing this approach so they can continuously monitor and maintain alignment between their customers’ vision of “ideal value delivery” and the capabilities of the business to deliver that value. In this way, CVM offers a new basis for competition and growth.

For further information and to purchase contact Colin Coulson-Thomas