It interest me how many companies claim to have the ‘customer’ as the centre of their business strategy, then still retain outdated revenue focused segmentation. Most businesses segment their base by Consumer, SME and Corporate. Some may go as far as segementing their Consumer base down to High/Medium/Low revenue potential, and measuring customer value in terms of Average Revenue Per Unit [ARPU].

Yet both this segmentation and performance reporting are revenue rather than customer focused. One of the best ways to drive more insight into your customers, and the potential your business has to engage with them in more meaningful [and more profitable] ways is to change both the segmentation and the performance reporting.

For example, consider all the different types of users for your product. They will typically fall into groups such as:

• Innovation leaders
• Fashion followers
• Basic or Advanced Users in terms of the depth of features they use
• Trade workers
• Office workers
• Executive
• Travelling businessmen
• Sports players and outdoors enthusiasts

and so on

Each of these groups will likely use your technology in different ways. Instead of just focusing on how new technology allows you to advance the feature set of your products, consider the specific needs of each user group. Getting ahead of their game, helps you get ahead of yours. And in turn, the more you meet the future needs of your customers, the more likely they are to be in meeting your future needs of a lifetime profitable relationship.