Since the value which a customer relationship has for a company is subject to a number of influencing factors, the focus of these one-dimensional models is too narrow. Most of the models used today by practitioners are multi-dimensional. A basic distinction is made between scoring models and customer lifetime value. The most comprehensive evaluation of a customer relationship is achieved through the use of the customer lifetime model. This model encompasses both monetary aspects and “soft” criteria such as the relationship potential (customer references and customer information).

Fundamentally, this model distinguishes between transaction and relationship potential. The transaction potential essentially comprises the current business volume, the growth potential, and the cost reduction potential. The recommendation potential (reference potential), customer feedback on optimizations within the company (information potential), and cooperation potential flow into the relationship potential.

Nowadays no one disputes that customer service, being the company’s “business card”, represents a major pillar of corporate strategy. Caught on the horns of the dilemma of service excellence and cost pressure, enterprises must master the challenge of readjusting services within a matrix of customer value factors as well as individual characteristics and behavioral patterns of customers – the qualitative properties.

The offer of selective, individual service makes good sense from the customers’ as well as the companies’ viewpoint. For example, the assumption that a service level must be as high as possible in every single case is today no longer unchallenged. The belief that every customer wants detailed advice over the telephone when there is a question is also considered to be a fallacy. Customer behavior – especially with respect to the performance of service – has become substantially more complicated today and will become even more complex in the future, driven primarily by the advance of mobile communications media and the interactive “2.0 Generation” of the internet.

A future-oriented customer service strategy must be capable of dealing with the development of complex customer needs and changes in user behavior; even more, it must exploit these factors for differentiation. Companies must develop a previously unknown degree of flexibility and offer services with a sharper focus on consumers. Customer service differentiation and the provision of individualized services are the strategic response to the general conditions under which companies must operate today.