How Well Do You Know Your Customer?

Customer lifetime value, the total worth of a customer to a business over the entire period of their relationship, is an established metric that I’m sure you all know. Increasing the value of your existing customer relationships is a great way to drive growth, and it costs less to keep existing customers than it does to acquire new ones.

For both vendors and partners in our line of work, we can go about our customer interactions as either a transactional occurrence or a larger strategic relationship. The days of buying cable boxes, laying down coax, etc., often fit into that category, but with the technological complexity that all businesses must contend with, we have an opportunity to understand our customers’ needs, cut through that complexity, and create a deeper trusted relationship for the long run.

In addition, it used to be that the customer relied on you to know everything tech related and tell them what to do, but that is often no longer the case. With the availability of data and greater post-COVID inclination toward self-service, customers are more often telling not just you but also us at Cox what solutions, or part of a solution, they believe they need. How do you build the trust necessary to ensure they look to you for the answer? As Jed Kenzy, co-founder of Innovative Business Solutions and CableFinder, says, “Work hard, do what you say you’re going to do, and solve problems. And if you do those three things, you will put yourself in a position where you are 80% to 85% ahead of the competition.”

Many of you are already traversing the larger pool of technologies and have become that solution-based partner to your customer. But how high-level and long of a view are you taking with them? Are you helping your customers see the future of technological opportunity? For example, when you replace their coax with fiber, how does the future look different for them? How will that near-term investment impact their bottom line through more effective work capacity and capabilities over the long term? Conversations that create a great customer lifetime value look to both short-term needs and longer-term strategies.

Building a deeper, more strategic relationship with vendors such as Cox can positively impact that end-customer relationship. We have a broad set of products to offer customers, from cybersecurity to cloud solutions to edge computing. Even if you are not versed in all the available technologies, by working together and leveraging our expertise, we can deliver a solution and message to your end customer that not only instills deeper trust in who they are working with and gives them a more holistic solution, but also opens you and your organization to deeper selling opportunities. The ecosystem is a powerful ally when you learn how to best leverage it.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.