A simple tool to help assess and create customer value.

• Author: Triplett, Ted
• Position: Customer Retention

It's a universally accepted concept: The bank that delivers what customers really want ultimately wins the competitive advantage. At a minimum, a bank must understand what customers value and how to create, communicate and deliver that value to them. Otherwise, customers will simply go somewhere else.

But before you as a marketer can improve the delivery of value to your customers, you first have to know what your customers value and how well your bank can create that value. One way to find out is by designing a feedback tool and then plotting the results on a value-importance performance grid.

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I first read of this idea in James G. Barnes' insightful book, "Secrets of Customer Relationship Management: It's All About How You Make Them Feel," (McGraw Hill [c] 2000). Barnes discusses how customer feedback can help you add value to increase retention, differentiate your bank and gain a competitive advantage.

Customers' answers from a survey, for example, are plotted on a grid. Values that land in the upper-right quadrant are of high importance to the customers and customers perceive that the bank is performing well in these areas. Those in the upper-left quadrant are also of high importance to the customer, but ones the bank is falling short on delivering--and, subsequently, a high priority for improvement.

The accompanying grid illustrates that Bank ABC isn't effectively and consistently communicating with its customers in a personalized way. Based on the values in...