Customer Life Cycle and Customer Experience Management (CEM)

Customer Life Cycle management applying to Customers and Users Experience applies in Business to Business (B2B or B-to-B) markets as well as Business to Consumer (B2C or B-to-C) marketplaces.

Traditionally, companies (particularly retailers in B2C markets) have used the concepts of customer satisfaction and customer experience as way to enhance loyalty and retention and while these can improve repeat sales the scope of the concepts is often limited to the 'buying experience' or 'in-store' experience which does not necessarily achieve product and service offering value proposition leadership.

In our view, Customer Experience Management (CEM) needs to apply to the whole Customer Life Cycle as depicted here.

This embodies the notions of: 'suspects' who potentially may benefit from acquiring a physical product, non-physical product and/or service offering but may not be aware of it; 'prospects' who may be ready, willing and able to acquire an offering and need to decide on a purchase; actual customers who were prospects who 'signed up' ; repeat customers who made more purchases and use more than one product or 'value proposition'.
These customers form part of a Value Network which refers to Supply Chain, Demand Chain (Channels/ Routes to Market) and various customers as well as contingents (e.g. regulators, standards bodies, approvals organisations ……..), collaborators (partners) and competition.
Leadership comes from providing these customers, users and network 'players' with excellent appropriate experiences throughout a customer life cycle. Note that this life cycle is an elliptical, repeating cycle which unfortunately has potential abandonment, loss and attrition points if customer experience is poor compared to expectations and competition.
During the steps of a life cycle (e.g. Needs Identification; Awareness; Learning; Evaluation; Deciding; Acquisition; Using/Consuming; Re-entry or new purchasing …..) there is a Touch Zone comprising 'touch points' where as a company we can influence or manage users or customers experience.
When considering ways to improve management of customer or user experience, there are some practical areas which we need to consider:

WHO: Who should we listen to and understand? Types of customers.
WHAT: What makes up 'voices' (spoken, unspoken, thoughts, observations, beliefs, actions)
HOW: To listen , observe, understand, translate and prioritise messages.
HOW MANY: mix and numbers to receive valid messages.

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Historically, companies engaged in B2C retail markets and manufacturers which develop and supply physical or non-physical products to consumers or end users have tried to adopt customer experience management. However, there has often been an over-riding focus on the 'buying transaction' and 're-entry transaction' in a store or web site with touch points being considered as transactions in automated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) information management systems. This transactional nature of experience management has in part been driven by the very large numbers of customers inherent in B2C and Business to End User (B2E) markets.

The Customer Experience Wheel provides a framework for the key steps for wider management of customer and user experience with respect to Value Propositions including experiential aspects and Life Cycle Touch points. It also guides participants in the use of key tools for successful implementation.
As indicated, best results are achieved when Voices of Customers (VoC) market research provides a detailed understanding of the experiences desired by different types of customers during their life cycles.

Historically, companies engaged in B2C retail markets and manufacturers which develop and supply physical or non-physical products to consumers or end users have tried to adopt customer experience management. However, there has often been an over-riding focus on the 'buying transaction' and 're-entry transaction' in a store or web site with touch points being considered as transactions in automated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) information management systems. This transactional nature of experience management has in part been driven by the very large numbers of customers inherent in B2C and Business to End User (B2E) markets.

The Customer Experience Wheel provides a framework for the key steps for wider management of customer and user experience with respect to Value Propositions including experiential aspects and Life Cycle Touch points. It also guides participants in the use of key tools for successful implementation.
As indicated, best results are achieved when Voices of Customers (VoC) market research provides a detailed understanding of the experiences desired by different types of customers during their life cycles.

Business to Business User (B2U) and Business to Business (B2B)

Companies which are involved in Business to Business User (B2U) and Business to Business (B2B) have been slower to adopt structured ways to manage customer experience.
While there are similarities with B2C, B2B and B2U have differences in terms of numbers, time and customer life cycle factors, which can affect the methodology, for example:

Typically B2B and B2U companies have much fewer direct customers. These customers are people within other business organisations.

Marketing and selling is still to individuals but this time they behave as business people and may have a constrained focus

Stages of a customer life cycle typically take place over a longer time period and may be more dependant on relationships than transactions.

Customer relationships are often more complex and depend on context of the value network which has a more complex structure of different types of customers as detailed below.

For some products and service offerings there may no users involved.

We have found it helpful to consider different types of customers who may be involved in B2B and B2U VoC research:

End Business 'Technical Buyer'

End Business 'Economic Buyer'

Business User (for B2U situations)

Route to Market 'Technical Buyer'

Route to Market 'Economic Buyer'

End Business Internal Influencer

External Influencer for End Business and Routes to Market

In a particular situation not all of these may be appropriate, however, consideration of these different types helps to define the methods and tools for providing appropriate experiences.

Another aspect which needs to ne taken into account is whether your company is developing and managing physical products, non-physical products or service offerings in variety of industries such as : Electronics; Telecoms; Software and High Technology; Engineering and Manufacturing; Chemicals; Ceramics and Building products; Financial Services ............

For all cases of B2B and B2U value networks the Customer Experience wheel incorporates a four layer 'experiential world' to describe the overall context and an Experiential Value Proposition Platform (EVP) which adds experiential dimensions to the Value Proposition model. In the case of B2U where business users are key customers this includes user and usage experience.

The key elements of the wheel are:

Experiential world model to provide a context in which to position customer experience

Experiential Value Proposition Platform (EVP) which positions a Value Position with respect to the experiential world model

Customer Life Cycle to define types of customers and Touch Zone

Assessment and improvement tools

We are experienced in adapting and applying Customer Experience methods and tools for a client's specific situation using a variety of Implementation programmes and a database of tools.

Implementation programmes

B2B and B2U Customer Experience Management programmes can be of 3 main types:

1. Customer Experience methods and tools improvement programme.
In this type of programme we can help you tailor and implement best practices, methods and tools best suited to your company, business unit, market, application and industry. We also provide training and skills transfer if required.

2. Customer Experience Market Research programme.In this type of programme we implement a programme for Customer VoC and possibly competitive analysis focused on customer experience aspects of current or potential Value Propositions based on physical products, non-physical products or service offerings. We provide recommendations for a Customer Life Cycle and Touch Zone model and a model for Experiential Value Proposition Platform (EVP).

3. Experiential Value Proposition Platform (EVP) design
In this type of programme we help design one or more platforms to improve customer and user experience.

These programmes can be used at various stages of the product or market life cycle, for example, as part of defining a new Experiential Value Proposition Platform (EVP) or as part of improving the customer experience aspects of a current Value Proposition. These programmes can be used at various stages of the product or market life cycle and adjusted to provide an appropriate mix of research results, client collaboration and process improvement.

Typical Implementation programme deliverables

Each of the main types of programme is tailored to the client's situation, and can comprises the following deliverables, depending on the situation:

Improvement Plan.

Tailored Customer Experience Wheel

Tailored methods and toolkit

Tailored Software Packages and Templates

Plan for conducting Customer Experience Market Research

Detailed Results from Primary and Secondary Research

Observations and recommendations relating to current Value Propositions from a customer experience perspective.

Observations and recommendations relating to potential future Experiential Value Proposition Platforms (EVP).

Toolkits:
Our approach installs an advanced set of tools to help achieve improvements and results. We assemble these tools into a toolkit for for a client's specific situation. Examples of tools include:

Value Network
Experiential Value Proposition
Experiential World Model
Experiential Value Proposition Platform (EVP)
Customer Life Cycle Framework
Touch Zone Map
Touch Point Scenarios
Customer Interface Specs

Free Proposal
We can provide a free proposal, including programme outline with costing, to meet your requirements please contact us.

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Click below for more information

Product Marketing and Management
Product Strategy and Product Portfolio Strategy: framework and tools
Product Definition (PD) and pragmatic Quality Function Deployment (pQFD)
Voice of Customer (VoC) and Market Research
Competitive Analysis and Competitor Analysis
New Product Introduction (NPI) or New Product Development (NPD)
In Life or In Market Management of Current Products
Product Value Proposition and Value Propositions Portfolio
Product Development, Marketing and Management Software Applications
Product Management and Product Manager Training