Companies should manage customer equity carefully.They should view customers as assets that must be managed and maximized.But not all customers,not even all loyal customers, are good investments.Surprisingly,some loyal customers can be unprofitable,and some disloyal customers can be profitable.Which customers should the company acquire and retain? The company can classify customers according to their potential profitability and manage its relationships with them accordingly. One classification scheme defines four relationship groups based on potential profitability and projected loyalty: strangers, butterflies, true friends, and barnacles.Each 33 group requires a different relationship management strategy. For example, “strangers” show low potential profitability and little projected loyalty. There is little fit between the company’s offerings and their needs. The relationship management strategy for these customers is simple: Don’t invest anything in them. “Butterflies” are potentially profitable but not loyal. There is a good fit between the company’s offerings and their needs. However, like real butterflies, we can enjoy them for only a short while and then they’re gone. An example is stock market investors who trade shares often and in large amounts but who enjoy hunting out the best deals without building a regular relationship with any single brokerage company. Efforts to convert butterflies into loyal customers are rarely successful. Instead, the company should enjoy the butterflies for the moment. It should create satisfying and profitable transactions with them, capturing as much of their business as possible in the short time during which they buy from the company. Then it should cease investing in them until the next time around. “True friends” are both profitable and loyal. There is a strong fit between their needs and the company’s offerings. The firm wants to make continuous relationship investments to delight these customers and nurture, retain, and grow them. It wants to turn true friends into “true believers,” those who come back regularly and tell others about their good experiences with the company. “Barnacles” are highly loyal but not very profitable. There is a limited fit between their needs and the company’s offerings. An example is smaller bank customers who bank regularly but do not generate enough returns to cover the costs of maintaining their accounts. Like barnacles on the hull of a ship, they create drag. Barnacles are perhaps the most problematic customers. The company might be able to improve their profitability by selling them more, raising their fees, or reducing service to them. However, if they cannot be made profitable, they should be “fired.” The point here is an important one:Different types of customers require different relationship management strategies.The goal is to build the right relationships with the right customers.
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