Focus on Operational Performance Management

When was the last time you discussed how your customers were performing? Do you have a formula to determine their lifetime revenue potential? And what it costs to serve them? Does this determine how you segment and market to your customers? Do your sales people use this value as a tool in the negotiation of price?

Basically how do you manage customer performance?

One of my clients was a credit card processing shop and what we found was that they were spending $4 for every $1 they were collecting from bad debts. While it was not the whole story, it was evident that we needed to better understand the customer lifecycle. This client did have specific marketing programs and processes, but they had not been challenged in quite some time and were common industry practices.  

What we find out when we look at commonly held beliefs is that their assumptions are no longer (if they ever were) valid. We get into a groove of momentum that we find difficult to change our beliefs and behaviors. We also lack a mechanism and the focus to understand which processes to look at. One of the most critical to me is around customer performance.  

Ask yourself if you know which customers …

When was the last time you discussed how your customers were performing? Do you have a formula to determine their lifetime revenue potential? And what it costs to serve them? Does this determine how you segment and market to your customers? Do your sales people use this value as a tool in the negotiation of price?

Basically how do you manage customer performance?

One of my clients was a credit card processing shop and what we found was that they were spending $4 for every $1 they were collecting from bad debts. While it was not the whole story, it was evident that we needed to better understand the customer lifecycle. This client did have specific marketing programs and processes, but they had not been challenged in quite some time and were common industry practices.  

What we find out when we look at commonly held beliefs is that their assumptions are no longer (if they ever were) valid. We get into a groove of momentum that we find difficult to change our beliefs and behaviors. We also lack a mechanism and the focus to understand which processes to look at. One of the most critical to me is around customer performance.  

Ask yourself if you know which customers are driving profits and which are destroying them? If not, this might be the best place to start thinking about improving insight and process improvement.

Posted in Culture of Action, Customer Value, Operational Performance Management, Process Improvement

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