The new meaning of customer value: a systemic perspective

Purpose – Today, as services and products are becoming increasingly intertwined and the competition increasingly global, delivering customer value is not as simple as it used to be. In this article, we suggest that in contemporary business environment customer value is often systemic by nature. This means that managers need to assess their firm's offering through systems‐thinking perspective in order to find out what are the most effective ways to create value for the customer. Design/methodology/approach – Evidence of systemic customer value is provided in the form of illustrative examples from Apple's and Google's offerings. Furthermore, we utilize a quality function deployment (QFD) tool to provide an example of modeling of the systemic value attributes. Findings – This paper illustrates how such systemic customer value in the firm's offering can be modeled. This enables the tracking down of the functions that produce the most value in terms of meeting various customer needs. A firm that understands the systemic nature of customer value is better able to concentrate on improving the core functions of its offering, thus gaining competitive advantage and value‐based differentiation over its rivals. Practical implications – The paper identifies three key issues and best practices concerning systemic value that are helpful for practitioners in improving their firms' offerings, i.e. connectivity, the importance of platforms, and the emerging role of free functions. Originality/value – The novelty of this paper lies in its analysis of systemic value. Value creation for the customer is often approached from a rather narrow perspective, without understanding the systemic viewpoint.