The Seven Myths of Customer Management: How to be Customer-Driven Without Being Customer-Led

In this lively and readable book, the authors argue that in recent years far too much has been made of customer satisfaction, and that this has come at the expense of hard-edged consumerism. Whether or not "the customer is king," the first rule of business is to make money. Pragmatic and practical, the book destroys seven key myths about customer management that have gained almost folkloric status, and provides a step-by-step action plan for linking customer service with commercial goals.

Table of Contents:
Figures ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction xii 1 The seven myths of customer management: Debunking some established wisdom 1 The dangers of customer leadership 1 What is really happening? 5 Myth 1: Customer retention is the key to increased profitability 6 Myth 2: Divesting unprofitable customers will increase profitability overall 9 Myth 3: Customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty 12 Myth 4: Repeat purchase is the same as customer loyalty 15 Myth 5: Organizations should develop relationships with their customers 18 Myth 6: One-to-one marketing is the ultimate goal 21 Myth 7: Technology is the primary enabler of customer focus 25 A different approach 28 2 Testing the water: Understanding where you are today 29 Picking up customer signals 32 Business-to-business customers 36 What research does not tell you 39 New technology, new danger 42 Substituting benchmarking for thought 44 Ten ways to gain real customer insight 46 3 Look before you leap: Developing a customer-focused strategy 50 What is customer-focused strategy? 52 Strategy in context 55 Developing customer-focused strategy 58 Appraising the world outside 62 Seeking to be different 66 Leading on cost 69 Focusing on markets or customers 70 The customer lifecycle 73 Deciding and evaluating alternatives 77 Action planning 80 4 Measuring your way to success: Allocating resources for maximum effect 83 The failure of measurement 85 Customer attitude measures 86 Customer retention measures 87 Customer value measures 89 The failure of management information systems 93 Towards customer value 97 Customer value analysis in action 102 The pitfalls and problems 107 The benefits of value-based management 109 5 Don’t keep it too simple, stupid: The need for a segmented approach 111 Segment or die 113 Understanding customers’ needs and motivations 114 Collecting the data 120 From data to intelligence 120 From intelligence to hypothesis 126 From hypothesis to appraisal 130 From appraisal to strategy 131 From strategy to results 133 Pitfalls and problems 136 Segmentation: a postscript 138 6 Lining up the ducks: Aligning the company for customer focus 140 Aligning finance 142 Aligning product strategy 143 Aligning the proposition: from product to profit 146 Brand alignment 148 Aligning distribution 150 Aligning customer communication 152 Loyalty programmes 158 Alignment: a postscript 163 7 Are you the problem? The role of leadership in creating customer focus 164 Data-less decision making 166 Rearranging the deckchairs 168 The pitfalls of project teams 169 Best practice is sometimes best left alone 170 Incentivizing inappropriate behaviour 172 Technology turmoil 175 Everyone embraces change enthusiastically 179 Reorganizing for focus 183 Changing a light bulb 187 8 Bringing the focus alive: A practical action plan 188 An action plan for customer focus 190 Managing the customer focus process 190 The internal review 193 Customer dynamics and needs 195 Segment objectives and propositions 198 Customer-management objectives, strategy and tactics 200 Channel strategies and implementation 207 Testing and performance measurement 208 Customer and market knowledge management 211 Change planning 213 Technology strategy 214 Index 218

About the Author :
John Abram began his career selling industrial textiles to major customers in industries as diverse as mining, water treatment and pollution control. He was promoted to head the firm’s business development functions in the UK, where he was responsible for introducing one of the earliest examples of automated customer management systems used in the UK. He was recruited by American Express in 1978 and appointed Marketing Manager, with responsibility for Cardmember recruitment and retention, as well as cross-sales of complementary products and services. In 1981, backed by a leading publishing firm, he started his own business promoting a range of products and services to entrepreneurs and business managers. In 1984, he bought out his original backers and took the business on to become a significant innovator in the promotion of investment products by phone and post, being the first in the country to sell personal pension plans direct to consumers. Paul Hawkes joined American Express Card Division in 1975 and subsequently became Marketing Manager for the merchant network in the UK and Ireland. In 1979, he moved to Time-Life Books and was promoted to become European Marketing Vice President, responsible for mail order and retail marketing and sales, new product development and co-publishing relationships across 14 countries within Europe and Africa. He was a director of the British Direct Marketing Association and a Council Member of both the Association of Mail Order Publishers and the Mail Order Publishers’ Authority; and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He is now a director of the Virtual Partnership Ltd. John and Paul co-founded Abram, Hawkes plc in January 1987, the UK’s foremost consultancy specialising in marketing and customer management; or, more simply, advising and assisting organisations on how to grow revenues and build customer profitability. They sold the company at the beginning of 2000 to Valoris, a major European consulting firm.

Review :
"…is a stimulating canter through some marketing mantras, dismantling them fairly and frankly before suggesting alternatives…" (Marketing, 16 October 2003) “… iconoclastic…” (Admap, February 04) "...The myths put CRM into perspective, explaining what to use and what to discard." (Brand Strategy, September 2006)