Customer value models

According to Anderson, Jain & Chintagunta (1993) there are nine methods to assess customer value that are commonly used by companies: (1) internal engineering assessment, (2) field value-in-use assessment,
(3) focus group value assessment, (4) direct survey questions, (5) importance ratings, (6) benchmarks, (7) conjoint or tradeoff analysis, (8) compositional approach, (9) indirect survey question. Although, as suggested above, the companies have a wide range of tools to measure customer value, Anderson & Narus (1998) suggest that the best toolkit to measure what customers value  is provided by customer value models. They are based on assessments of the costs and benefits of a given market offering in a particular customer application. For this purpose field value assessment needs to be used, also known as value-in-use or cost-in-use, which is believed to be the most accurate method. It is worth noting that in practice customer value can only be estimated.

Customer value in B2B markets

Customer value plays important role especially in business markets. It is crucial for suppliers to identify the value of a product for a customer and effectively communicate it. Many customers understand their needs but often they do not realize what value the fulfillment of the requirements will bring to their businesses. From the supplier perspective this is an opportunity to show the value of their offerings. Suppliers need to translate features and benefits of their offerings and help their customers answer the question: What is it worth for my business? Growing number of suppliers realize that understanding what the customers value would help them to gain competitive advantage over their competitors.