In our numerous customer management engagements in all types of businesses and sectors, we have seen a lot of customer strategies!
We’re often asked to describe what makes great B2B customer relationship management strategy, so we’ve distilled our experience into an approach that ensures that all the critical components are covered in your own strategy.
This approach involves three distinct steps and 12 explicit components:
What are we trying to achieve?
Vision & Rules of Engagement
It is vital that the leaders in the organisation interpret the corporate vision for what that actually means for customers and their experience.
Customer Culture
An organisation’s culture can make or break its customer strategy. The culture determines how customers are really esteemed in the business.
Customer Value Objectives
It is vital that the customer strategy has value objectives that are distinct from sales targets, phrased in ways that all stakeholders can immediately see the benefits.
Business Case and KPIs
Customer Management teams should be challenged to build a compelling business case and value tracking (KPI) model for the strategy.
Who are we engaging with?
Segmentation Model
Segmentation should be 100% embedded in strategy and execution, especially Key Account definition. Segments should be clearly defined, described and understood by staff.
Lifecycle & Life Stage
The company’s models and approach to managing product lifecycles and customer/business life stage must be explicit in the customer strategy.
Experience & Journey Design
Experience design should be “outside-in” based on customer needs & wants rather than just journey mapping efforts to “get the processes right”.
Channel Management
You must prepare your business to deliver a consistent, high quality customer experience across established, digital and emerging media and channels.
How are we going to do it?
Propositions & Contact Plans
Interpreting brand values into sales, service and relationship promises and then delivering on them to the different customer segments along their customer journey.
Capability Enhancement
Strategies, programmes and initiatives will only be successful if the organisation has the capabilities to enact them – raised systemically and trained vocationally.
Data & Technology
Customer information and the systems that store and share it are fundamental to good customer management and the delivery of an appropriate, intelligent customer experience.
Voice of the Customer
A B2B-specific methodology built into KAM processes and performance management to track long-term customer relationship quality, based on Trust and Commitment.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP STRATEGY
RELATED READING
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Our Services help you maximise value, optimise satisfaction and minimise account attrition:
World-leading B2B-specific methodology to understand, manage and improve long-term customer relationship quality.
Customer Relationship Strategy
Best practice approach to developing great strategy in three distinct steps with 12 explicit components.
Unique approach to ‘engineering’ your customer experience.
Engaging both sides of key partnerships to get to the heart of how well the relationship is working and improving.
Focus in on the MOTs that will make a difference in either alleviating customer ‘pain’ in dealing with you or exploiting opportunities to ‘gain’ incremental mutual value.
Optimising the MOTs to quality assure the experience.
– The problem often isn’t what was delivered – it’s what was promised!
