Managing Customers as Investments The Strategic Value of Customers in the Long Run

Chapter 1. CUSTOMERS ARE ASSETS

That customers are important assets of a company is not a novel idea. Scores of books have been written about the importance of customers, ways to provide value to them, and the need for a company to be customer-oriented. Most senior executives will readily agree that customers are critical to the survival of a firm and that their entire organization must be customer-centric.

In spite of the apparently almost universal acceptance of the importance of customers, the actions of most firms don't always match this talk. This is not necessarily for lack of effort. Instead, most firms are caught in a situation where millions or even billions of dollars are poured into customer-oriented programs—from satisfaction measurement ...