The evaluation of customer value needs to comply with the following principles:
(1) Long-term principle. In customer relationship management, customer value examines the value flow generated by the customer to the enterprise during the period of maintaining a relationship with the enterprise, rather than the contribution to the enterprise’s profits in a certain period or year. Only by focusing on the long-term principle can the customer’s contribution to the enterprise’s value be truly reflected.
(2) Comprehensive principle. Factors affecting the composition of customer value: customer satisfaction, customer popularity, customer reputation, etc., are a subjective evaluation of customers after consuming products or services or of the enterprise on customers. They vary from person to person, so the measurement of customer value cannot be limited to the value measurement of a certain customer, and at the same time, the differences between customers cannot be ignored. In addition, customer value is composed of many aspects, and comprehensive considerations are also needed when evaluating customer value.
(3) Holistic principle. There are significant differences between the various factors that constitute customer value. At the same time, the various factors influence and restrict each other. They are an organic whole. When analyzing and evaluating the customer value of an enterprise, the various factors cannot be isolated.
(4) Objectivity principle. The assessment of customer value in customer relationship management cannot rely solely on human judgment. Decision makers must combine qualitative and quantitative methods based on subjective judgment and certain mathematical calculation methods to obtain more realistic results.
For enterprises, not all customers are equally important. It is crucial for enterprises in a customer-centric business model to use the results of customer value assessment to find customers that are strategically important to the enterprise and formulate targeted strategies based on their characteristics and needs. Implementing detailed marketing or even one-to-one marketing for strategically important customers is one of the strategies advocated by CRM.
The purpose of online customer value evaluation is to:
(1) Change the traditional method of evaluating customers based solely on their past or current profit contribution to the enterprise, because the traditional method does not take into account other value forms besides purchase value, ignores the relationship building and management of potential customers and growth customers, and ignores the implicit value created by customers for the enterprise. Customer value can become a key variable for customer segmentation in customer relationship management.
(2) Customer value evaluation helps enterprises identify valuable customers among numerous consumers and implement different customer management according to different customer values, so as to maximize the effectiveness of the limited resources of enterprises.
(3) Customer value evaluation requires enterprises to cultivate loyal customers and meet the different needs of customers at different stages of life when conducting customer relationship management. It cultivates customer loyalty and prolongs the customer life cycle by improving customer satisfaction. At the same time, customer value evaluation also helps enterprises determine the upper limit of the amount of funds that should be invested in establishing or maintaining a certain customer relationship.