Customer value

Comprehensive evaluation

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From the perspective of a single scenario, customer value is based on the balance of perceived gains and losses or Product utility Of Comprehensive evaluation ； And from the perspective of relationship, customer value is: the value of the whole process=(the gain of a single scenario+the gain of a relationship)/(the gain or loss of a single scenario+the gain or loss of a relationship). This definition believes that the measurement of customer value should be the continuous process of the whole relationship, not just limited to a single scenario. To sum up, customer value is defined as the trade-off between customer perceived gains and losses, which is the overall evaluation of the effectiveness of products or services.

Chinese name: Customer value
Foreign name: Customer value

research field: Customer perspective
Source: supplier

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definition

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In the subsequent study of customer value, different scholars defined customer value from different perspectives:

(1) From the perspective of a single scenario, Anderson, Jain, Chintagunta and Monroe all believe that customer value is based on the balance between perceived gains and perceived losses or Product utility Of Comprehensive evaluation ;

(2) From the perspective of relationship, Ravald and Gronroos focus on the impact of relationship on customer value, and define customer value as: the value of the whole process=(the gain of a single scenario+the gain of a relationship)/(the gain or loss of a single scenario+the gain or loss of a relationship). They believe that the trade-off between gain and loss should not be limited to a single scenario, but should be extended to the value of the whole relationship duration (total value) Measurement.

(3) Butz and Good2stein also emphasize that the generation of customer value comes from finding the additional value of products after purchasing and using products, thus establishing a relationship with suppliers Emotional bond 。

(4) Most scholars agree with Woodruff's definition of customer value, and have done a lot on the basis of its definition Related research 。 Woodruff, through empirical research on how customers view value, proposes that customer value is customers' perceived preference and evaluation of product attributes that help (hinder) them to achieve their goals and objectives under specific use scenarios, the effectiveness of these attributes, and the results of use. This definition emphasizes that customer value comes from the perception, preference and evaluation of customers through learning, and links products, use scenarios and relevant results experienced by potential customers.

Customer value refers to the customer's competitive position Of Relativity assessment. It has the following two different meanings:

1. Value in mind: customers take what they get from products or services Core interests To define value, that is to say, customers can judge the value of products or services subjectively based on their satisfaction.

2. Price value: use "price" to determine the value they have obtained; Customers think that they can buy the same product at a lower price, and the value obtained is higher.

Main categories

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Many scholars have classified customer value from different perspectives. Sheth et al Customer value It is divided into five categories: functional value Social value 、 Emotionality Value, cognitive value（ epistemic ）And Conditional value 。 Burns classifies customer value into product value, use value Possessive value And full value. Woodruff and Flint divide it into actual value and expected value. From the above analysis, it is easy to see that although scholars have many understandings of customer value, they view value from the perspective of exchange, and agree that the core of perceived value is the balance between perceived gains and perceived losses.

Calculation evaluation

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Since customer value is based on customer perception, it requires evaluation to start from customers, usually including service level And customer satisfaction. Service level is a typical tool to quantitatively evaluate the market consistency of companies, and its definition varies from company to company; Customer satisfaction survey is used to evaluate the performance of sales departments and individuals, and provide feedback for the improvement of products and services. In addition, compared with customer satisfaction what's more Customer loyalty Customer loyalty can be obtained by analyzing customer repurchase behavior through internal database.

Value management

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Core customers

By Customer value chain Some value factors may bring more profits than others. Therefore, one of the contents of customer value management is to measure the role of value elements in customer value, and its standard depends on the role of this element in customer value Enterprise products The increasing potential of consumption and its role in the long-term value of enterprises. The "factor customer" can be established according to the factors affecting customer value Value Matrix ”For a primary factor, the customer value matrix of the factor is established with perceived gains as the vertical axis and perceived losses as the horizontal axis; Then, with the customer value component factors as the horizontal axis and the customer value of each factor as the vertical axis, the enterprise customer value or Customer expected value Connect into a curve to establish the customer value composition curve. If the enterprise's customer value on a certain factor is higher than the industry's customer value on this factor, then the enterprise's customer value on this factor is the core customer value of the enterprise.?

To improve

with Profit maximization Target enterprises management strategy , often in the case of conflict between customer value and the current profit of the enterprise Enterprise profit , sacrifice customer value and Corporate social responsibility , resulting in separation from customers, endangering society and ultimately damaging the long-term interests of the enterprise. The business strategy aiming at maximizing customer value is often too prominent due to different understanding and pursuit of customer value connotation Corporate interests And ignore Customer benefits And finally step into the mistake of profit maximization. ".?

theoretical model

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Alienation theory

[[ Philip Kotler ]](Philip Kotler)[[ customer delivered value ]]And[[ Customer satisfaction ]]From the perspective of customer value. The premise of the research is that customers will choose from companies that they think provide the highest cognitive value Buy products 。 Customer delivered value refers to Total customer value And Total customer cost Difference.

Total customer value is a series of benefits that customers obtain from a specific product or service, including Product value 、[[ service value ]]、 People value And[[ Image value ]]Etc. [[ Total customer cost ]]A series of costs paid by customers to purchase products or services, including[[ Cost of money ]]、[[ Time cost ]]、[[ Spiritual cost ]]And[[ Physical cost ]]。 Customers are the pursuers of value maximization. When purchasing products, they always hope to obtain the maximum benefit at the lowest cost, so as to meet their needs to the maximum extent.

Value model

Jeanke, Ron and Onno's models describe the whole process of value from a vague concept to specific products in the market with the development of business from the perspective of suppliers and customers. For the supplier, the supplier is based on what he feels[[ Customer needs ]]And the strategy, capability and resources of the enterprise itself, forming the concept of "value to be provided". Due to enterprise conditions or product development For reasons such as disconnection from the market, the enterprise based on "the value it wants to provide" designs the specific products or services as the carrier“ Design value ”, there is a "design gap" between the two. For customers, what they want from their own perspective is "the value they want". because social environment , the development of science and technology and other objective factors, the products provided in the market cannot fully match the value expected by customers, so there is a "compromise gap" and“ Expected value ”。 Due to the existence of Customer needs In the process of [[customer demand]] survey, the enterprise has too much mixed with its own ideas, and the analysis of [[customer demand]] may not be objective and accurate, so there is an "information gap" between the "value to provide" and the "value to get" of customers. Customer's subjectivity Value perception makes a "perception gap" between "expected value" and design value. When the customer uses the product, the gap between the "value obtained" and the expected value is the "satisfaction gap". By narrowing the gaps, enterprises can provide the value they really need for customers.

Woodruff

Woodruff (1997)'s Customer value hierarchy model This paper answers the question of how customers perceive the value provided by enterprises. The model proposes that customers are formed in the way of path target Expected value 。 From the bottom to the top, when purchasing and using a specific product, customers will consider the specific attributes and attribute effectiveness of the product, as well as the impact of these attributes on the implementation of Expected results Ability. Customers will also form expectations for the ability to achieve customer goals based on these results. From the top down, customers will determine the weight of each result of the product in the use scenario according to their own goals. Similarly, the results determine the relative importance of attributes and attribute effectiveness. At the same time, the model emphasizes the use of scenarios in the customer Value evaluation The key role of. When the usage scenario changes, Product attributes , results and goals will change. This hierarchical model It is also pointed out that the comparison between the expected value of the product before use and the actual value after use at each level will lead to satisfaction at each level. Therefore, customers will be satisfied or dissatisfied with the achievement of product attributes, attribute effectiveness, use results and goal intentions.

Woodruff's Hierarchy Model of Customer Value

Weingand

Weingand is working on empirical research In the process, customer value is divided into four levels, namely basic value, expected value, demand value and unexpected value. Each level corresponds to different customer values.

Weingand's Customer Hierarchy Model

Value chain

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Customer value chain From the perspective of customers Consumption process Description of, Customer acquisition The process of value is clearly reflected in customers through transaction activities and relationship activities Value chain On. Porter pointed out in Competitive Advantage that as consumers, they also have their own value chain, namely Buyer value chain 。 He believes that a company can create the value they need for the buyer by improving the buyer's efficiency or reducing the buyer's cost. The buyer's costs not only include Financial cost , including the cost of time or convenience. He divided the buyer's purchase criteria into two types: one is the use criteria, which is a specific measure of how to create buyer value; The other is the signal standard, which measures how the buyer understands practical value Of Value scale 。

Research direction

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Theoretically, the definition of customer value in academia is not uniform, and further research is needed. In addition, it is necessary to study the relationship between customer value and relevant concepts, such as customer value and customer satisfaction Customer loyalty , customer retention, etc. In addition, with the development of the Internet, Online shopping It has become a daily way of shopping. Under this special shopping background, Customer consumption behavior The differences between customer value and the traditional shopping context also need further research by the academic community. At the same time, with Global economic integration The formation and globalization of market competition The intensification of cultural background Whether the perception of customer value has an impact on further research.

from Time dimension Seen from the perspective, further research on the dynamics of customer value is still needed, not limited to Customer expected value Dynamic research. In terms of research methods, we should track customers to obtain relevant data. In terms of samples, we should break through the limitations of an industry to make the results more representative.

In terms of theoretical application, it is necessary to further combine theory with enterprise practice, including customer based organization structure How to change and how to measure customer value can help enterprises distinguish customers.

research status

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（1） Customer value Concept definition Angle study

The original concept of customer value mainly discusses how to measure customer value. For example, Jakson (1985), Morris (1994), Higgins (1998), An demon, Narus (1998), Kotler (1994) and others all define customer value from the perspective of how to measure it. Jakson (1985) was the first scholar in the world to define customer value. He first proposed that "value" is actually the definition of "customer value". He believed that value is the ratio between perceived benefits and price, where the price includes the purchase price and the risk of acquisition, transportation, installation, ordering and failure. This meaning of customer value reveals that customers Subjectivity of value And relativity are the earliest research results. After that, many people have carried out more in-depth research on the concept of customer value according to this idea. Morris (1994) believes that customer value is the function between quality and price perceived by customers. Kofler (1994) believes that, customer delivered value It is the difference between total customer value and total customer cost. Total customer value is Customer expectations A group of benefits obtained from a specific product or service, also known as Total customer value 。 The total customer cost is the estimated cost incurred by customers when evaluating, obtaining and using the product or service, which is also called the total customer cost. Customer delivered value determines what kind of products and services customers choose. In fact, customer delivered value and customer value mentioned above are the same concept. In addition to the definition of customer value from the perspective of measurement, other scholars also gave different definitions of customer value from the perspective of customer perception and evaluation. Zei~aml (1988) proposed Customer perceived value It is the overall evaluation of product effectiveness based on the perceived gains and losses of customers. If the overall evaluation result is positive, the product or service will have customer value; otherwise, there will be no customer value. This concept emphasizes the subjectivity of customer value. Monroe (1990) believes that customer perceived value represents the trade-off between the quality or benefits customers get from transactions and the costs they pay. He mainly emphasized the relativity of customer value.

（2） A Review of the Research on the Components of Customer Value

The previous research on the concept of customer value Journals reviewed Some contents of customer value elements have been involved. With the passage of time, the research on the constituent elements of customer value has been constantly enriched and developed. The constituent elements of customer value mentioned by the author in this study refer to the elements and standards that customers pay attention to in value evaluation. In the study of the constituent elements of customer value research method It's a key group Research method , usually choose Representativeness 20% of customers form a key group, and then determine the key elements of customer purchase through the key group (Woodruf, 1997; Zeithaml, 1988)

Summarize experience

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Chinese scholars started their research on customer value relatively late, most of which are western scholars Customer value theory Based on the analysis and sorting, but many of them Research perspective It is unique and has a good starting point, which has a strong guiding significance for the practical operation of customer value management in China. In the study of customer value theory by western scholars, we can see the richness of the connotation of customer value. Essentially, they are trying to comprehensively and profoundly explain the connotation of customer value. Although scholars have given their own understanding of customer value from different perspectives, there are some common points in their definitions: (1) In the definition, customer value is more or less directly or indirectly distinguished from individuals or Organizational value Differences. Customer value, like customers' understanding of satisfaction, is a reaction to the comparison of things, which is spontaneous; (2) Customer value is the customer's Product service It is a kind of perceived utility that is generated from the judgment of customers rather than determined by enterprises; (3) Customers Perceived value The core is that the perceived benefits obtained by customers, such as benefits and utility, are equal to the perceived costs paid for acquiring and enjoying the product or service, such as the price paid or others opportunity cost Trade-offs between; (4) Customer value is intrinsic or related to the use of products. Gronroos, Parasuraman, Woodruf, Zei~aml and Nankai University Of Bai Changhong Professor and other scholars have done a lot of work on the basis of previous work, and the academic community has basically reached consensus on the following three aspects: (1) customer value is actually customer perceived value, that is, the balance between customer perceived gains and losses; (2) Customer value has Hierarchy 、 Dynamic And relatedness; (3) Relationship Marketing It will create more than simple Transaction Marketing Greater value. But further deepening of customer value Quantitative research Not much. Therefore, the research in this part will help us further excavate and Quantitative analysis Provides the foundation.