The Application of Activity Based Costing to CRM – The Case of A Special Chemical Wholesaler

• Main Authors: YO-CHUAN CHOU, 周祐全
• Other Authors: 曾智揚
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/f84862

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 事業經營碩士在職學位學程 === 105 === ABSTRACT In the age of Internet, information can be easily disseminated and assessed. Therefore, traditional wholesalers are faced that information of their cost can be easily accessed by their end customers. Because of this, their customers might set lower willing to pay price. In other words, it becomes more difficult for wholesalers to make profits simply by Cost-Plus Pricing. In addition to the value of the product itself, wholesalers must devise marketing strategies that create and elevate customer satisfaction and perception, such as catering to customer specific needs, bundling sale, assistance with JITD transportation management, or technical services. Such customer service generates additional values other than profits obtained from the Cost-Plus Pricing. However, because this type of profit is based on customer perception, it is hard to determine a price point. In my case study with a focus on a company selling special chemical products, if they cannot figure out the cost of these additional services, they will be unable to clearly set a price standard. Furthermore, it will be hard for them to analyze and decide whether the investment of these services is correct and profitable. As a result, it is hard to make decisions on customer account management. Therefore, I approached the case study company''s problems with Activity-Based Costing, selecting types of customers and researching resource consumption of these services, and further conducting customer profitabilty analysis. Based on the result of the anaylsis, I examined whether the percentage of the profits could support the cost of providing these services, and categorized the customers as the first step towards CRM. The result of my research are as follows: 1. Profits of the wholesalers mostly come from the services they provide their customers, rather than simply the products themselves. 2. Even though ABC is intricate and complicated, it effectively and concretely presents values of service activities. 3. Using ABC for customer profitability analysis can help the company clearly determine the customer''s value to the company and further decide managing strategies to relevant customers.