The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Four Keys to Growing Your Business Through Existing Customers

MEASURING CUSTOMER PERCEPTION

Metrics geared to the customer relationship can begin to provide a deeper level of insight into how the customer feels about the company. Measuring what matters to customers is one of the best ways to ensure that a company can begin to predict business results. Janet LeBlanc, president of Janet LeBlanc + Associates, a leading authority in the area of customer value and experience management, recommends that companies understand and manage the value that customers perceive in a company's products and services.

LeBlanc explains that customer value is a good measure of what matters to customers and consists of two factors: quality and price. Quality is defined best by the customer, based on what he or she values most about the customer experience. Price is the second factor, and customers evaluate it by asking themselves whether the product or service is worth what they paid for it.

Although customer perceptions of quality and price (i.e., value) are not always factored into the previously discussed satisfaction and loyalty metrics, according to LeBlanc, in her years of business experience, customer value has been found to be one of the best predictors of business success.

Five Pillars

LeBlanc advocates launching a Customer Value Management Program in order to first understand and then take action on customer value perceptions. This goes back to the fundamentals of a customer experience management program. Gather data on what customers value most, use ...