CRM Assignment
CRM Assignment
CRM Assignment
The customer lifetime value equation essentially views a customer as an income stream. So
instead of considering the customer’s purchases as single transactions, the marketing focus
becomes creating ongoing series of profitable transactions. These ongoing transactions are
created through customer relationship management practices and strategies – with the
success of CRM activities being measured by improvements in the firm’s customer lifetime
value.
If we use the banking sector as an example, a first-time customer to a bank is usually likely
only to open a savings or transaction account. While there are exceptions to this outcome,
this is generally the case for most first-time customers. Therefore, the bank will look to
grow the relationship with the customer – increasing the share of customer (known as share
of wallet in the banking sector).
To do this effectively the bank considers the customer’s profile, how long they have been a
customer, how valuable they are, and so on. They will then look to manage that relationship
and try to progress the customer to a more valuable relationship by selling them or
expensive or additional products/services.
However, this is not always the case, and some customers will remain low profit customers
ongoing. If the bank identifies that the customer is relatively unresponsive to the additional
offers, then they would probably increase the customer’s lifetime value by reducing the
bank’s marketing activities and support that are targeted at that consumer.
This highlights a direct relationship between the goals of customer relationship management
and customer lifetime value. With customer relationship management, we are considering
the customer (or a segment of customers) and determining the most appropriate course of
action – that is, various marketing activities and campaigns and people interaction – that
will enhance the relationship with the customer, so it becomes more profitable to the firm
and more beneficial and convenient to the customer. Typically, customer relationship
management should be a win-win scenario for both the firm and the customer.
Customer lifetime value is a key marketing metric that allows you to measure the impact
and outcomes of the firm’s customer relationship management strategies and tactics. As
highlighted in the banking example above, some customers may not be responsive to cross
selling activities. Therefore, increased up selling costs may result in a reduced customer
lifetime value.
Increasing customer lifetime value is not simply a matter of spending additional money in
customer acquisition, retention and up selling – rather spending the money appropriately
across those three areas, depending upon the value, potential and responsiveness of the
customers (segments) involved.