Do You Want to Keep Your Customers Forever?

Customers, whether consumers or businesses, do not want more choices. They want exactly what they want—when, where, and how they want it—and technology now makes it possible for companies to give it to them. Interactive and database technology permits companies to amass huge amounts of data on individual customers’ needs and preferences. And information technology and flexible manufacturing systems enable companies to customize large volumes of goods or services for individual customers at a relatively low cost. But few companies are exploiting this potential. Most managers continue to view the world through the twin lenses of mass marketing and mass production. To handle their increasingly turbulent and fragmented markets, they try to churn ...