We are taught, from a young age, to choose our words carefully.  To use language appropriate to the person we’re addressing and the setting in which it takes place.  We are born with the tools we need to communicate, and through trial and error (and the occasional telling off) we hopefully learn to get it right.

Wasted Opportunities

Flip to an organisation that wants to communicate with its customers, and there are times when it seems that the focus is purely on developing the mechanisms.  Emails are sent without regard for the recipient’s preferences, mailshots are delivered in their thousands and ads pop up on every website.  Customers mark the emails as spam, put the mailers straight in the recycling and clear out their cache.  So much wasted opportunity.

Coherence Unlocks Customer Value

The real art of Customer Value Management (CVM) as we see it, lies in addressing the entire value chain of activities relating to customers in order to exceed their expectations and in turn improve commercial performance.  A coherent operation with a rigorous framework that encompasses commercial strategy, traditional CRM, communications, product and proposition roadmaps, customer lifecycle, and data and analytics, enables decision making with the customer at the centre.  The power of knowing the context, and potential consequences of each interaction, is that it enables organisations to truly unlock the value of their customers.

Truly Effective People = Truly Effective CVM

Technology and data are the foundations upon which CVM is built, but they are by no means the heart or the keystone of Customer Value Management. From single customer view engines, through optimisation and arbitration algorithms that manage customer contact, to machine learning and the AI centred engagement of tomorrow – at the centre of it all is people. It’s the people that design, use, and continually improve upon the technology that a company needs for truly effective CVM. Intelligent, curious, and driven people with keen commercial minds who understand the art of putting the customer at the heart of business decisions.