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In This Issue:
Visual
Data
Systems Seminar
Wilmington NC
September 22
About Us
Visual Data Systems is a leader in Internet marketing,
technology consulting and World Wide Web design. As a pioneer in Internet
business, we've logged more than a decade of achieving customer satisfaction
and Internet innovation.
Visual Data Systems offers a wide variety of products
and services that can be customized to fit your unique business needs.
Let our experienced professionals polish your ideas and dreams to create
your distinctive Internet presence.
At Visual Data Systems, there are no barriers. Just Innovations.
News & Events
Catch Visual Data Systems at the upcoming Conferences:
RMS Users Conference Wilmington, NC, September
22-24
Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) National
Orlando, Florida October 11th - 15th
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February
2003 • Volume 1, Issue 1
Understanding the Customer Value Concept -
Your Key to Success
By: Kimberly Childers
In recent times there have been a growing number of conferences, articles,
books and newspapers committed to the question of customer value. Do you
truly understand customer value? It's probably more important to your
business than you realize. The broad description of Customer Value is
described as the understanding of what customers really value in a company's
services or products and being able to deliver value as defined by the
customer. It is important to know how to deliver customer value consistently
because it may the very best investment that any company can possibly
make. Customer value is directly related to the benefit that a product
or service brings to an individual or the person directly dealing with
the service or product. An example used in the book, Delivering Customer
Value, by Karl Albrecht is, "It's not the gasoline, but what the gasoline
does for the customer, that constitutes the value. It's not the remodeled
office, but the usefulness and enjoyment the customer gets from the premises."
There are both definite and indefinite aspects that involve total customer
value. Another concept to keep in mind is the customer's perceived worth
of an outcome, or the customer value premise. Between customer value and
the customer value premise, it is important to understand that these two
concepts need to be fused together in order to gain complete customer
value satisfaction.
Now let's think about customer focus. Customer focus is directly linked
to customer value. Most businesses and companies would not deny that being
customer focused is a good business practice. However, for some businesses,
the phrase 'customer focused' is just a marketing related concept that
is perceived as giving customers a warm and fuzzy feeling about the company's
service and product offerings. Marketing campaigns, buzz words, slogans,
and warm and fuzzy phrases are just not enough in today's competitive
economy. Being customer focused means taking action to discover what your
customers truly value. This understanding will allow you to set up the
pathway for gaining a competitive advantage and position over all of your
competitors.
Most companies deliver value in multiple ways, though some may be very
dependent upon specific attributes. This directly ties into the concepts
of product value, services value, personnel value, and image value. Here
are some thought provoking questions to think about. What does your business
do to create real customer value? What does your business do to create
a competitive advantage and position over other businesses in the industry?
What are some practices that your staff and managers use to create customer
value? How is your business set up to provide customer value through your
technology, systems, services, policies, methods, and procedures? It is
important to think about these questions because it brings about an understanding
that it is everyone's job in your organization to help create customer
value. When everyone in your business is focused on the customer, then
it really becomes a successful business that is focused on customer value.
It is agreed that there are three key components to attaining and maintaining
true customer value. The first component is to have a customer-focused
business strategy. The second is to have customer-oriented staff and management.
The third and final component is to have customer-friendly technology
and systems. These three components all need to directly focus on the
customer. The element of a business strategy is affiliated with how we
want to conduct business and the interactions we have with customers.
A quality business with a lack of focus and direction will not be successful
if the strategy is not clear. This means defining your business's vision,
mission, core values, and competitive concept. Staff and management within
your organization are fundamental to achieving customer value. Entrust
them to create their own quality commitments as individuals as well as
promoting the concept of customer-focus. Technology and the systems that
your customers use must focus on creating or adding value. External customers
and internal customers, those that count on other departments to accomplish
their goals, must have all the equipment, facilities, work processes,
organizational structures, and information systems working to their potential
in order to allow these customers to achieve their missions.
There are five critical business practices that outstanding organizations
do exceptionally well in order to accomplish customer value, according
to Karl Albrecht. The first critical business practice is to understand
the market and to do customer research. Organizations and businesses that
are at the top of an industry know their customers quite well. They know
exactly what customers value and they also know what they need to do in
order to win and keep their customer's business. The second critical business
practice is to formulate a strategy. Top organizations and businesses
set out to formulate their approach towards winning and keeping customers
through customer research. They have a very defined strategy laid out
in order to achieve this goal. These organizations also understand that
their business is service driven, not solely based on available services
or products that the company offers. The third critical business practice
is to educate, train and communicate. Leading businesses strive to connect
the message, vision, business values, and business goals together in order
to train their staff and educate their customers. These elements must
all gel together to successfully achieve corporate goals. The fourth critical
business element is process improvement. In order to attain true customer
value, businesses continuously work to polish, promote, organize, and
enhance their process infrastructure. The last critical business practice
involves assessment, measurement and feedback. It is important for leading
organizations to take the information provided to them through customers,
assess and measure the feedback, and then improve upon the input that
has been provided. This feedback should also be disseminated to staff
and management for the purpose of succeeding at their individual customer
oriented goals.
Without customer value, it is impossible for any organization to win
and keep customers and their business. A customer's needs, wants and elements
of perceived worth should be the top consideration with every organization.
Remember, creating and delivering customer value is everyone's job in
the world of business.
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