Assess and characterize customers!

The opinion that customer service must be differentiated more clearly and oriented to individual customer aspects if companies are to prevail in their competitive environments is broadly accepted: 97% of the surveyed participants in a recent Detecon study on the future trends in customer service agreed. In the opinion of the respondents, this sends a clear signal for the rejection of the concept of standardized customer service which gained prominence in the 1990s. The fundamental value of comprehensive and excellent customer service is also unquestioned: 89% of the participants agreed that it is a rewarding investment for the improvement of customer satisfaction and subsequently the strengthening of loyalty. The differentiation approach is followed by the thesis that in the future customer service will be strongly characterized by individualization and personalization. 93% of the respondents agreed with this thesis.

Before companies can specifically and successfully establish differentiated customer service, they must first become thoroughly familiar with their customers, understand them, and assess them. Besides the quantitative evaluation, a qualitative analysis is especially useful here as a means of obtaining data about the expectation structures, purchasing behavior, and other individual characteristics of the customers. The customers are not the only ones to profit from the greater transparency provided by the growing “information society” and the technological innovation process – companies also find expanded opportunities for the collection and analysis of data and information. The consolidation and structuring of extensive information through the use of appropriate support systems and processes is an integral part of modern customer feedback management. The customer profiles generated this way contain the quantitative and qualitative characteristics for the creation for a transparent evaluation basis.

Value-based, but also individual differentiation of the service portfolio!

Customer value is also clearly designated as a significant differentiation property in the Detecon study: 75% of the respondents believe that the type and scope of services should always be oriented to the value of customers for a company. The degree of individuality and exclusivity of services should rise from low to high customer value, starting with economical/solution-oriented basic services in the lower value segments and leading up to the premium-oriented services for top customers. These results confirm that service differentiation based on customer value is already familiar and established.