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Who are your most valuable customers? How much are they worth?
  
"I know for a fact, that half my advertising money is wasted. But which half?" (David Ogilvy). The same sentiment could also be said about attracting and servicing customers. Not all customers are created equally nor are they all worth the effort - but which ones are they? Most businesses are forced to provide consistent, high quality and costly support and services to every customer because you just don't know who your most profitable customers are. You make money on some, but surely not all.

Detailed information, analysis, hypotheses and tests are required to fine-tune your operations and focus on the specific areas of your business and customers that will reap the most rewards. Without this information, differentiated service can only be a dream. You must identify your most valuable customers and create a "service lock" to address all of their potential needs.

Once you know which half is the right half to focus your time, money and efforts on, specialized service offerings, support strategies and enabling technologies can be directed toward maximizing the contribution of your customer base. This is the focus needed to create the "service lock" and helps your support center create relationships that discourage defection.

Differentiated service is typically reserved for the frequent business traveler or the high net worth banking client. Many businesses to which you are most loyal do not know who you are and are thus incapable of further strengthening that relationship. Most companies treat all customers the same regardless of their value to the enterprise, and the resulting cost of churning your most valuable customers is painful to estimate.

Are you one of these companies? Do you know who your most profitable customers are?

The Solution
At The Customer Group, LLC. we have developed an approach to help companies like yours get to the bottom of creating service solutions based on customer value. Customer Value Analysis (CVA) leverages our expertise in customer operations to find and report the data necessary to develop targeted programs, practices and methods for enhancing the contribution of your operations. We help you focus on the right customers - your best current and potential customers.

The Customer Group's Customer Value Analysis is a proven approach for customer segmentation, behavior and interaction analysis designed to develop targeted strategies for the retention of a company's most valuable asset, their customers.

We believe that a relationship based on customer insight can propel an organization from simply treating customers efficiently to treating them efficiently and effectively relative to needs, preferences and value potential. With the CVA approach, companies can leverage new opportunities to individualize their customer's service experience by creating personalized interactions. Your customers will keep coming back allowing you to focus on those customers that generate the most revenue.

CVA Approach
The CVA approach begins with the study of customer profile information related to buying habits, geography, demographics, service incidents and other customer characteristics. This is the essential information that forms the basis for our analysis. We study both acquisition and defection attributes.

We also work closely with a company's Marketing department, particularly Marketing Research and the Information Technology/Systems department to gather and assemble customer profile data and align it to the service needs and behaviors. Although many companies have previously engaged outside marketing research firms or ad agencies that have inundated them with information regarding product, market and brand positioning, rarely do these analyses view customer value and opportunity from a service perspective. Why? Because they do not possess the expertise to develop the customer insights that can become the foundation of the programs that create the "service lock".

Ultimately, CVA is focused on creating customer interaction solutions that build on the insight gained from customer analysis. This leads to a thorough understanding of customer value that strengthens customer loyalty and retention.

The Bottom Line
Marketing costs are at record levels and rising across all industries. Finding new and innovative ways to leverage your existing marketing and customer investment is increasingly becoming a key strategic weapon to drive revenues and profitability.

Companies that do not manage their customer base effectively and understand customer value may not find themselves participating in the competitive marketplace of tomorrow.