Managing customers is critical for every business. If a business creates a product or service that customers need and it has the privilege of getting customers to buy the product or service repeatedly, it goes without question that managing these customers to repeat the demand and supply cycle continues to keep the business running and growing.

By definition, customer management is described by Engage Bay.com and Kinetica Consulting (combined) as the process, practice (the focus of this article), system, and application a business uses to maximize value to and from the customer creating a culture aligned to deliver value to the customer and drive increased sustainable business performance.

A business that seeks to succeed should have a customer management strategy because overall, having and executing a customer management strategy helps a business:

• Identify its happy and unhappy customers
• Innovate to satisfy and retain customers 
• Gain insights into customer behaviour for better decision making and improve/sustain business performance

With the above in mind, there are different customer management methodologies that businesses use to keep the demand and supply cycle alive. Inspired by the business model, each business is required to find a customer management practice that helps it offer the most value and receive the most value from its customers.

Customer Management Practices

From my experience in banking & financial services, telecommunications and education sectors as well as my CX entrepreneurial experience in consulting and in a CX technology solution startup, I have observed that while there may be very common and on-trend customer management practices like customer experience and customer success, the ideal customer management practice per business type should differ and each business model should determine what customer management practice a business adopts. 

In general, I have observed 4 key customer management practices that businesses are likely to adopt to effectively offer the most and receive the most value to/from customers. Using a sector description approach, these known practices are:

1. Customer Value Management 
2. Customer Experience Management
3. Customer Relationship Management
4. Customer Success Management

If you take a closer look at each customer management methodology or practice, you will find that each one is uniquely different with overarching benefits. 

Finding The Right Customer Management Methodology For Businesses (Case Study)

With reference to my experience in corporate and now co-founding a CX technology startup where I also function as the chief customer officer, it has become clear to me that each of the unique businesses had an ideal customer management practice that would help it give the most value to and receive the most value from customers.

Don’t get me wrong, focusing on your customer’s overall experience is great but it is even more effective when your customer experience management efforts put in perspective the ideal customer management methodology that speaks to a business’s “why” i.e. why are you in business?

The below picture is a summarized case study of my experience managing customer experience in 4 different sectors. At the kick-off of all 4 roles, I used a customer experience management approach but after reviewing the current state of customer experience vis a vis the goals and aspirations of the different businesses, I opted to inculcate different customer management practices to get the best results that the businesses could appreciate. 

Useful Tips – Conclusion

How do you identify and use the right customer management practice for your business or (if you already have a customer experience strategy in place) create a hybrid of customer management practices to give you the best results?

1. Let your business model inspire what customer management practice you adopt. 
2. When you have identified a business-inspired customer management practice, measure business outcomes before and after you implement the practice to validate your choice
3. Create a strategy around your selected customer management practice. Define what your customer management practice means for different areas of your business i.e. people, systems and processes
4. Tell a story with your customer management practice i.e. share wins and outcomes from a customer’s perspective so that everyone can see how well they have managed customers. Use this as a tool to get everyone customer-committed 
5. Explore the option of hybrid customer management practices. From my experience, creating a hybrid of customer management practice gives the best results but you will need to determine what aspects of each practice to adopt or customize. Create your own! Brand it! Sell it! Celebrate it!

Need some help figuring out what customer management practice to adopt or how to create a hybrid of customer management practices? We are happy to help. Contact us today.

deBBie akwara

She is referred to as one of Africa’s leading CX entrepreneurs & educators launching CX businesses & Africa’s first globally recognized CX certification courses.  

She is the founder & principal at Niche CX Consulting Firm, a globally recognized CX thought leader & influencer, CX keynote speaker, author and co-founder; Customer Experience Professionals West Africa (CXPWA) network.