3 Ways to Create and Maximize Customer Value

Customer value refers to the perception of worth that a customer derives from a product or service in relation to its cost. It encompasses the benefits a customer receives, including quality, service, and experience, compared to the price they pay. Essentially, customer value is the balance between the advantages gained and the sacrifices made, and it plays a critical role in influencing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and purchasing decisions.

In B2B, the goal is to turn customers into clients. In this blog, you'll notice customer value and client value are used interchangeably.

Creating Customer Value

Creating value for your clients is the heart of any successful business endeavor. To embark on this journey, it's crucial to reimagine your value proposition and align it with your customer's overall experience. Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Follow them along their whole journey and navigate the entire process within your organization. What do you see?

When you analyze your buyer's perception, you can identify areas where you can add value and transform the customer experience. Here are three ways you can maximize creating customer value:

1. Removing Dissatisfiers

You don't need to be a superhero to add value; often, the most impactful actions involve eliminating dissatisfying elements. Imagine visiting a hospital where the parking situation is abysmal. After wandering through confusing hallways for 40 minutes, you're left frustrated and late for your appointment. Fixing the parking issue may not earn you extra value points, but not addressing it subtracts from the overall customer experience. Similarly, while being courteous on the phone or at the information desk, and minimizing wait times might not win you accolades, failing in these areas detracts from customer satisfaction. Addressing customer frustrations, no matter how small, is crucial in creating a positive customer experience. Knowing how to handle negative feedback is a way to improve processes in your organization.

When it comes to CXM, Trusted Advisors are expected to be able to navigate through these pain points for their clients. It might not be apparent in the short run, but failing to address these dissatisfiers actively harms the overall customer experience, and in the long run, can hurt satisfaction and loyalty.

2. Engaging the Entire Organization

To create exceptional value, it's vital to involve your entire organization. Every encounter a customer has with your business shapes their perception. You could provide a great experience in ten different interactions, but a single negative encounter—the result of a flawed process or an untrained employee—can undo all the progress you've made.

Companies don’t do business together – the people within the companies do. Business relationships are cultivated by the people who do business together. Therefore, cultivating customer loyalty requires concerted efforts from every department.

The Role of Senior Management

Securing senior management buy-in is instrumental in promoting customer loyalty. How management treats employees directly reflects in the customer experience. As the late Herb Kelleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines, wisely stated, "If a person has a great attitude, we can teach them the skills they need."

In B2C, customer-facing roles are the highlight of creating customer value. It then becomes crucial to hire talented individuals who know how to coach and train their teams.

In B2B, leaders also need to build Trusted Advisor relationships with their buyers aside from the account teams to create and maximize client value. At the same time, they need to be able to manage their account managers and be the role model of being a Trusted Advisor.

It may be a daunting task to do all this for C-suite professionals but CXM tools are available for seamless management. Here at Encompass-CX, we make sure leaders get a bird's eye view of their entire organization in a customizable dashboard. Getting the right software to minimize complexity will help engage your senior management in creating client value.

Equipping Teams with Trusted Advisor Skills

Account teams and sales managers should be able to build deep meaningful relationships with their customers. According to The Science of Loyalty, Six Dimensions can identify what trusted advisor skills your teams excel in and lack. With Encompass-CX you can measure each of your account managers against these 6 dimensions to understand buyer perception. This will provide them with actionable insights to improve their performance.

Your customer-facing team members will mostly build client relationships with your organization. Equipping them with the skills to foster trust will position your company as a valuable partner, rather than just a service provider. As a result, customers are more likely to remain loyal and engaged.

Moreover, providing incentives for your employees and teams will keep them engaged in your initiatives to maximize customer value.

3. Continuous Reassessment

At the start, you'll need to establish benchmarks. Encompas-CX Maturity Model serves as a yardstick for where you are now, and what should be your next step. But because value creation is an ongoing endeavor, companies need to continuously reassess their processes.

Regularly reassess different aspects of your value proposition to ensure you are consistently adding value and not subtracting it. Monitoring and reporting is key to maintaining a competitive edge in the marketplace.

With Encompass-CX, you can send out relationship assessments to identify at-risk customers. You can easily pinpoint buyer intent and mitigate churn if you've started assessing your client relationships as early as now! Increasing your retention rates through this process maximizes client value.

Creating value for customers is the lifeblood of any successful business. In a competitive market, it's how you can keep customers from choosing your competitors. By reimagining your value proposition and refining the customer experience, you can foster loyalty and satisfaction.