盈利能力分析相关的外文翻译和英文原文

客户盈利能力分析的实施：案例研究

埃里克·M、凡·RAAIJ、桑德凡·彻斯特

特文特大学技术与管理学院

摘要：通过使用客户盈利能力分析（CPA），企业可以决定客户群和/或个人客户的利润贡献。本文介绍了CPA的实施办法。执行过程中使用的是公司产的案例研究和销售的专业清洁产品说明。这个案例研究突出了工业环境与CPA的具体问题，并把结果提供了实施定期CPA过程中可能带来的好处的例子。

关键词：客户盈利;客户关系管理（CRM）;实施;案例分析。

1.介绍：

在任何给定的客户群，将有客户产生的公司，并在公司有承担，以确保这些收入成本收入差异。虽然大多数公司将了解客户的收入，很多企业并不知道与客户关系有关的所有费用。在一般情况下，产品成本将被称为为每一个客户，但销售和市场营销，服务和支持成本大多视为开销。客户盈利能力分析（CPA）是指收入和成本分配到细分客户或个人客户，这样，这些段和/或单个客户的盈利能力可以计算出来。

CPA日益关注的动力是双重的。首先，不同产品作业成本法在上世纪90年代兴起（ABC）导致了不同程度的提高认识到制造业使用公司的资源。当使用ABC，公司首先确定成本库：组织内进行的活动类别。其次，信息技术使得有可能记录和分析更多的客户的数据在类型和量中。随着数据如订单数量，销售访问次数，服务电话号码等存储在各个客户的水平，有可能去实际计算客户盈利。它被认为是良好的行业营销实践建立和培养与客户的利益关系。为了能够做到这一点，企业应该懂得目前的客户关系不同的盈利能力，以及什么客户群提供更高的潜力，未来盈利的客户关系。

2.CPA的潜在效益

CPA的直接好处在于它提供了在成本和收入超过客户分布不均的情况。在成本中的客户传播的信息将是特别有价值的，因为收入分配一般是已知的公司。这种认识在何种程度上特定客户消费公司的资源产生了公司在三个领域的新机遇：成本管理，收入管理和战略营销管理。

首先，CPA揭示了有针对性的成本管理和利润改善计划的机会。公布的数据显示例子，其中20％的客户创造利润225％，其中一半以上的客户是盈利或者对客户的损失可能会高达2.5倍的销售收入。CPA，作为ABC的一个具体应用，揭示活动和资源消耗之间的联系，因此它直接指向获利机会。

二，注册会计师为消息灵通的定价决策，奖金计划，并给客户折扣的基础。这说明了为什么填一些订单的成本比别人多，使公司有自己的价格反映了这些分歧。分析结果还可以帮助修改现有的折扣结构，以提高盈利能力。

三，注册会计师开辟了可能性分割和针对基于成本和盈利能力分布策略。一些公司已经细分自己的客户群在铂，金，铁，铅的客户，根据他们的利润贡献。

这些潜在的CPA的好处也经常出现在引用文献里。然而，在实际执行CPA产生的问题很少讨论。在下一节中，注册会计师实施的总体思路，提出。

3.实施注册会计师的总体思路

客户盈利能力的实际计算相当于一个广泛锻炼。为了使CPA真正有用的，实施应该更进一步比绘制了客户的盈利模式和插入数据进去，作为分析的价值是基于更明智的决策行为。因此，六步的方法来实现CPA建议。这种方法提供了一个指令，一个团队至少包括一名营销和管理会计。根据公司的特点和信息系统，该团队还包括运营管理和信息

专家。

第六个也是最后一步处理建立的继续使用CPA的必要的基础设施。在销售和市场营销的日常嵌入CPA和会计可能有必要改变在程序的变化，职责和变化的系统。接下来的部分介绍了企业对商业环境中这六步方法的应用。

4.注册会计师在工业清洗公司实施

这种情况的组织是一家跨国公司的业务为研发，生产，销售和市场营销的专业清洁产品的全国销售办事处之一。其中公司的主要市场是工业洗衣，办公室清洁，酒店清洁，厨房卫生和个人卫生。其产品直接出售（以大的最终用户，例如在飞行中供应商及服务集成，如专业清洁剂），以及通过经销商。该公司已经划分了市场进入的基础上最终用户的性质的市场领域。正如许多工业企业，这家公司采用了相当大的销售和服务力量。销售人员负责发起，维持和发展的客户关系。该服务队负责订单处理，客户培训，咨询，产品展示，维护和修理。

过程也是基础设施的一部分。为了提高未来的客户盈利数字的准确性，销售经理和客户经理被要求开始登记他们的客户拜访的时间。在没有在第一轮分析，这样的登记，销售费用分配给客户作为收入的百分比。销售队伍的意愿来记录自己的时间花在客户很高，因为他们了解这些信息对客户盈利准确分析的重要性。

5.从CPA中学习

上述演习是该公司与会计师事务所第一次体验。至于那些建议，最有效的方法获得的客户关系准确估值是一个迭代的方法，其中一个客户的盈利模式是在组织中逐步实现的。这意味着，对于每个循环，该模型是要改善，直到计算是足够精确用于营销目的。对于本公司的第一个改进为下一次迭代涉及的销售力量小时注册以更准确地分配销售成本。它进一步决定每6个月重复CPA运动，并实施改进方式。

对于该公司，演习引发了人们学习的三个不同层次：第一个，也是最基础层面上，该公司了解了每个客户的去年有成到过该公司的营业收入和这些信息如何可用于成本管理，收入管理，并营销管理。其次，该公司正在学习如何收入和成本的最佳分配到个人客户。在这篇文章中所描述的第一次尝试，是一个仅仅是个开始不断完善这样的分配方法。和第三，该公司正在学习的各种因素是什么确定每个客户的价值（客户盈利存在但这些因素之一）。

6.讨论

有几个注意事项CPA的用户应该知道的。首先，CPA数字是从多个数据构造源。这些数据源的准确性限制了顾客盈利数字的可能精度。此外，CPA模型必须是实际处理的良好表示。

这里报告的CPA练习是回顾性的分析，即，过去的收入和客户在一个特定周期中产生的成本的分析的一个例子。管理人员也将有兴趣的客户盈利前瞻性分析。准CPA计算与服务的客户在他的整个未来的生活相关的未来预期成本和收入的净现值。准会计师事务所也被称为客户终身价值analysis.To能够估计未来的成本和收益，对客户盈利的回顾性分析是一种宝贵的，如果不是必需的，第一个步骤。

7.结论

在这个案例中，一个六步的方法来在公司内部实施CPA。成本和收入应该分配给唯一活跃的客户，这意味着开始分析与识别的客户可考虑活跃客户的客户数据库。第二步涉及公司内产生都是为了服务客户的成本，所有活动的分析。对于所有的活动，成本动因具有以这样的方式，它可以被计算出的各成本动因许多单位是如何用在每个单独的顾客被识别。实际计算步骤3执行随后，结果的解释和权衡利润分配之间的客户先验期望。基于对（初步）成果的讨论，有关的费用分配给客户先前的决定可能会被修改，以提高

分配的准确性和/或公平性。一旦计算方法约定的数字是，营销策略，程序和动作可以尝出新的信息。可能需要非常无利可图帐户立即行动，改进方案可以安装，以减少不必要的成本高，而且全新的战略，可能会针对特定客户群的发展。作为第六工序中，可能需要调整组织建立一个基础设施的持续

在组织中使用CPA的。

关于第三个问题，即注册会计师为基础进行差异化营销策略，工业企业应考虑采用盈利能力为基础的市场分割，已经被应用在金融服务和其他非主要产业，市场差异化战略。一旦客户盈利数字是建立客户评定为白金，金，铁，铅或客户的客户金字塔内，客户可以根据自己的层次送达。由于盈利基础细分是新的工业企业，首先有效地实现它可能是收获回报不成比例的位置。

CPA会带来大量新的信息，该公司使用它的第一次。因此，CPA是高度本身的价值。在这一点上，有一个小的证据它的广泛使用，并在工业实际执行公司。在日益重视对CRM 的时代，客户忠诚度，CPA很可能是急需骨干这种努力。

本文摘自Erik M. van Raaija, Maarten J.A. Vernooijb, Sander van Triestc,The implementation of customer profitability analysis: A case study，School of Technology and Management，University of Twente，2002。

The implementation of customer profitability analysis: A case study

Erik M. van Raaij a, Maarten J.A. Vernooij b, Sander van Triest c,*

School of Technology and Management，University of Twente

Abstract：

By using customer profitability analysis (CPA), firms can determine the profit contribution of customer segments and/or individual customers. This article presents an approach for the implementation of CPA. The implementation process is illustrated using a case study of a firm producing and selling professional cleaning products. The case study highlights specific issues related to CPA in an industrial setting,and the results provide examples of the possible benefits of implementing a process of regular CPA.D 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords:Customer profitability; Customer relationship management (CRM); Implementation; Case study

1. Introduction

Within any given customer base, there will be differences in the revenues customers generate for the firm and in the costs the firm has to incur to secure those revenues. While most firms will know the customer revenues, many firms are unaware of all costs associated with customer relationships.In general, product costs will be known for each customer,but sales and marketing, service, and support costs are mostly treated as overhead. Customer profitability analysis (CPA) refers to the allocation of revenues and costs to customer segments or individual customers, such that the profitability of those segments and/or individual customers can be calculated.

The impetus for the increasing attention for CPA is twofold. First, the rise of activity-based costing (ABC) in the 1990s led to an increased understanding of the varying extent to which the manufacturing of differen t products used a firm’s resources (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991; Foster &Gupta, 1994). When using ABC, firms first identify cost pools: categories of activities performed within the organization(e.g., procurement).

Second, information technology makes it possible to record and analyze more customer data—both in type and in amount. As data such as number of orders, number of sales visits, number of service calls, etc. are stored at the level of the individual customer, it becomes possible to actually calculate customer profitability.

It is considered good industrial marketing practice to build and nurture profitable relationships with customers. To be able to do this, a firm should know how current customer relationships differ in profitability, as well as what customer segments offer higher potential for future profitable customer relationships.

2. The potential benefits of CPA

The direct benefits of CPA lie in the insight it provides in the uneven distribution of costs and revenues over customers.The information on the spread of costs among customers will be valuable in particular, as the distribution of revenues will generally be known to the firm. This insight in the extent to which specific customers consume the firm’s resources generates new opportunities for the firm in three areas: cost management, revenue management, and strategic marketing management.

First, CPA uncovers opportunities for targeted cost management and profit improvement programs. Published figures show examples where 20% of customers generate 225% of profits (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991), where more than half of the customers is unprofitable (Storbacka, 1997)or where the loss on a customer can be as high as 2.5 times

sales revenue (Niraj, Gupta, & Narasimhan, 2001). CPA, as a specific application of ABC,

reveals the links between activities and resource consumption, and it therefore points directly to profit opportunities (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991).

Second, CPA provides a basis for well-informed pricing decisions, bonus plans, and discounts to customers. It shows why filling some orders cost more than others and enables firms to have their prices reflect those differences (Shapiro et al., 1987).The analysis outcomes may also help in revising existing discounting structures to improve profitability (cf. Kalafatis & Denton, 2000).

Third, CPA opens up possibilities for segmentation and targeting strategies based on cost and profitability profiles. Some companies have segmented their customer base in platinum, gold, iron, and lead customers, based on their contributions to profits.

These potential benefits of CPA are frequently cited in the literature. Yet the issues arising in actually implementing CPA are seldom discussed. In the next section, an overall approach for the implementation of CPA is presented.

3. An overall approach for implementing CPA

The actual calculation of customer profitability amounts to an extensive ABC exercise. To make CPA really useful, the implementation should go further than drawing up a customer profitability model and plugging data into it, as the value of the analysis is in the actions based on better informed decision-making. Therefore, a six-step approach to implementing CPA is suggested. This approach, outlined in Fig. 1, provides a directive for a team consisting of at least a marketer and a management accountant. Depending on the characteristics of the firm and its information systems, the team can also include operations managers and information specialists.

The sixth and final step deals with establishing the necessary infrastructure for the continued use of CPA.Embedding CPA in the daily routines of sales and marketing and accounting may well necessitate changes in procedures(e.g., marketing planning), changes in responsibilities, and changes in systems (e.g., information systems). The next section presents the application of this six-step approach in a business-to-business setting.

4. The implementation of CPA in an industrial cleaning firm

The case organization is one of the national sales offices of a multinational firm that engages in the development,production, sales, and marketing of professional cleaning products (chemicals, cleaning systems, and consumables).Among the firm’s main markets are industrial laundry, office cleaning, hotel cleaning, kitchen hygiene, and personal hygiene. Its products are sold directly (to large end-users such as in-flight caterers and to service integrators such as professional cleaners), as well as through distributors. The firm has divided its market into market sectors based on the nature of the end-user (e.g., healthcare, lodging, or dairy).As with many industrial firms, this firm employs a considerable sales and service force. The sales force is responsible for the initiation, maintenance, and development of customer relationships. The service force is responsible for order processing, customer training, advice, product demonstrations, maintenance, and repair.

Procedures are also part of the infrastructure. To improve the accuracy of future customer profitability figures, the sales managers and account managers were requested to start registering the duration of their customer visits. In the absence of such a registration in the first round of analysis,sales costs were allocated to customers as a percentage of revenues.The willingness of the sales force to record their time spent for customers was high, as they understood the importance of this information for accurate analyses of customer profitability. 5. Learning from CPA

The exercise described above was this firm’s first experience wi th CPA. As Ward and Ryals (2001) suggest, the most effective approach for attaining accurate valuations of customer

relationships is an iterative approach in which a customer profitability model is progressively implemented in the organization. This means that, with each cycle, the model is to be improved until the calculations are sufficiently accurate for marketing purposes. For this firm, the first improvement for the next iteration concerns the registration of sales force hours to allocate sales costs more accurately. It has further decided to repeat the CPA exercise every 6 months and implement improvements along the way.

For the firm, the exercise has sparked learning on three different levels: On the first, and most basic level, the firm has learned w hat each customer’s last year contribution has been to the firm’s operating income and how this information can be used for cost management, revenue management, and marketing management. Second, the firm is learning how revenues and costs are best allocated to individual customers. The first attempt described in this article is only the start of a continuous improvement of such allocation methods. And third, the firm is learning what the various factors are that determine the value of each individual customer (customer profitability being but one of those factors).

6. Discussion

There are a few caveats users of CPA should be aware of. First, CPA figures are constructed from multiple data sources. The accuracy of these data sources limits the possible accuracy of the customer profitability figures. In addition, the CPA model has to be a good representation of the actual processes.

The CPA exercise reported here is an example of a retrospective analysis, i.e., an analysis of past revenues and costs generated by customers over a specific period(cf. Jacobs et al., 2001; Storbacka, 1997). Managers will also be interested in prospective analyses of customer profitability. Prospective CPA calculates the net present value of future expected costs and revenues associated with serving a customer over his entire future life. Prospective CPA is also known as customer lifetime value analysis (see e.g., Berger & Nasr, 1998; Dwyer, 1989; Hoekstra &Huizingh, 1999; Jain & Singh, 2002). To be able to estimate future costs and revenues, a retrospective analysis of customer profitability is a valuable, if not an essential, first step.

7. Conclusions

In this case study, a six-step approach was used to implement CPA within the firm (cf. Fig.

1). Costs and revenues should be allocated to active customers only, which means that the analysis starts with identifying those customers in the customer database that can be considered active customers. The second step is concerned with the analysis of all activities within the firm that generate the costs that are made to service customers. For all activities, the cost drivers have to be identified in such a way that it can be calculated how many units of each cost driver are spent on each individual customer. The actual calculation is performed in Step 3. Subsequently, the outcomes are interpreted and weighed against a priori expectations of profit distributions among customers. Based on a discussion of the (preliminary) outcomes, earlier decisions about the allocation of costs to customers may be revised to improve the accuracy and/or fairness of the allocation. Once the calculation method is agreed upon and the numbers are in, marketing strategies, programs, and actions can be attuned to the new information. Immediate action may be required for extremely unprofitable accounts, improvement programs may be installed to reduce unnecessary high costs, and whole new strategies may be developed for specific customer segments. As a sixth step, organizational adjustments may be needed to establish an infrastructure for a continued use of CPA in the organization.

With respect to the third issue, that of CPA as the basis for differentiated marketing strategies, industrial firms are advised to consider the use of profitability-based market segmentation, a differentiation strategy already used in financial services and other, predominantly nonindustrial,markets (see e.g., Noone & Griffin., 1999; Storbacka,

1997;Zeithaml et al., 2001). Once customer profitability figures are established and customers are classified as platinum, gold, iron, or lead customer within the customer pyramid, customers can be served according to their tiers. As profitability- based segmentation is new to industrial firms, the first to implement it effectively may be in the position to reap disproportional rewards.

CPA will bring a wealth of new information to the firm that uses it for the first time. As such, CPA is highly valuable by itself. At this point, there is little evidence of its widespread use and actual implementation in industrial firms. In an era of increased attention for CRM and customer loyalty, CPA may well be the much-needed backbone for such efforts.

Note:Erik M. van Raaija, Maarten J.A. Vernooijb, Sander van Triestc,The implementation of customer profitability analysis: A case study，School of Technology and Management，University of Twente，2002。