Customer Value Analysis
The path to improved customer value starts with data. Customer value analysis develops a quantitative picture of the markets in which you compete. When we fill in CVI’s Comparative Performance Scorecard with data gathered from product specs and evaluations, market research, expert judgement, and competitive intelligence, this picture can tell you:
- What your customers want
- Which suppliers are performing well or poorly against these wants
- Whether or not you offer customers good value relative to your competitors
- How much your products are really worth
- What improvements to your product would be worth the most to customers
- How to set prices to be competitive and to capture the full worth of your product
- The role of marketing communications in shifting how customers view your brand
Surprisingly, we can address these questions with a relatively small amount of data. You are likely, in fact, have most of the data you need already in your files. And, even if you don’t, you can put together a best-guess estimate for the data based on your management team’s knowledge of the market. (In fact, when we are working with our clients, we recommend that they do build these “mental models” as a first step. We then work on assembling research-based data from customers and product evaluators . This staging helps us identify areas where management misperceptions might be leading the business in the wrong direction.)
Customer Value, Inc. has developed a number of analysis tools that are used to help you assemble and understand your data and use it to guide your business strategy. CVI’s software, The Value-Strategy Toolkit, streamlines the process of developing these analyses. We use this software in our action learning programs. We also lease the software to our clients to give them continuing access to the tools of customer value analysis.