Do you want to keep your customers forever?

• Published in: Harvard business review 1995-03, Vol.73 (2), p.103-114
• Main Authors: Pine, B Joseph, Peppers, Don, Rogers, Martha
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brand loyalty; Business management; Business strategies; Competitiveness; Consumer behaviour; Consumer demand; Corporate profiles; Customer relations; Customers; Data bases; Grocery stores; Market strategy; Online information services; Personal selling; Strategic planning; Technological change; Technology
• ISSN: 0017-8012

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. However, most managers continue to view the world through the twin lenses of mass marketing and mass production. To handle increasingly turbulent and fragmented markets, they try to churn out a greater variety of goods and services. But they end up bombarding their customers with too many choices. A company that aspires to give customers exactly what they want must use technology to become 2 things: a mass customizer that efficiently provides individually customized goods and services, and a one-to-one marketer that elicits information from each customer. The process of acquiring those skills will bind producer and consumer together in a learning relationship - an ongoing collaboration to meet the customer's needs over time that will continually strengthen their bond.