There are five things that influence a customer’s perception of value:

1. Brand
A strong brand has value because of its associations with certain qualities and performance standards or how it reflects the customer’s identity.

2. Awareness and communications
People can’t value something they don’t know exists, and what people hear about a product — through advertising or word of mouth — sets their expectations.

3. The sales or purchase process
Great sales people understand their customer’s needs and match them to the right product. The better the match, the more value is realized. An easy purchase, onboarding and first time user experience also improves the perception of value.

4. The product or service itself
What it does, how it does it, and what it costs — this is the meat in the burger. 

5. Customer service
Everything post purchase — returns, support enquiries, changing your address or billing — also creates or diminishes value.

Here are a three worth implications worth drawing your attention to:

1. Where is customer experience in the above? 
It’s not one of the five, so where is it? What does your CX team do to create more value for customers? You need to answer that for your own organization and figure out the operating model for any CX function in the context of these five things. The CX teams that do this succeed. The teams that don’t find themselves scrapping for turf and influence amid confusion over their role.

2. Which of these value creation activities are the force multipliers? 
There’s no point improving customer service if your weak point is sales conversion. Very few people actually consider what the weakest link is and focus on that, instead just strengthening their strengths and ignoring their weaknesses.

3. How intentional are you about your brand? 
If you want to be known for “ease”, for example, it should be expressed across comms, sales, product and service. Again few people are consistent which limits the formation of strong associations with the brand.

This stuff is explained in greater detail in the leader's guide to customer experience. If you’ve got challenges with any of the three points above, the course is gonna help you!

Link in the comments :)

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