Return on Customer: Creating Maximum Value from Your Scarcest Resource

Thirteen years ago, Peppers and Rogers' "The One to One Future" moved customer status from that of corporate pawn to valuable partner. Ensuing books - theirs and others - refined and facilitated that strategy. Now "Return on Customer" justifies the customer a seat and powerful vote on the board. It provides principles, compelling logic and financial rationale that management, analysts and investors can utilize, develop and apply within their corporation. Moving mountains isn't easy, "Return on Customer" goes a long way to fuel that shift.

There's so much written out there about customer loyalty, and so much of it is the same song n' dance. Fact is, so few of the loyalty gurus go to the place of bridging the vision and the tactics. Don and Martha have taken the tried-and-true tenets of customer value and customer loyalty and wrapped some measures around them so that executives, shareholders, and board members can begin understanding--and measuring--the value of their customer assets. As with their other works, the authors offer a mixture of new ideas and real-world examples to bring their concepts home. The complexity of the work and thought required to understand not only customer interactions and behaviors, but there intentions, is explained via a clear and powerful framework that transcends marketing and advertising, and goes straight to the bottom line. I appreciated the book's organization, and the comprehensive end-notes were a nice annotation and background to the authors' thought processes and research. Another successful work by two pioneers who will continue to propel customer focus forward!

ROC - What a concept! I worked for a leading (#2) electronics retailer for more years than I care to discuss. As a corporate employee, I saw mistake after mistake but it wasn't until I read Return on Customer that it all became obvious what was going wrong. The company was focused on short term gains to please the stockholders rather than cultivating customers. All business decision-makers need to read this book! Peppers clearly articulates what is wrong with many of today's companies and he shows how business people can focus on their customers to increase shareholder wealth. Peppers describes how telemarketing efforts (something consumers unilaterally hate) may look like they increase current sales; and therefore, produce a hefty ROI. What businesses do not see is that these campaigns actually lose customers for them over the long run, thus decreasing shareholder value. As you read this book, you can easily recognize the companies you deal with that are customer-focused and those that are not. You may think the concept is obvious - but then why isn't everyone doing it? By measuring Return On Customer, you create loyal customers who then evangelize your company - the best kind of marketing! Corporate execs and business owners, you need to read this book!

They have done it. Peppers and Rogers have established a way to quantify the business value of implementing a one to one customer strategy. Bravo.

Don Peppers and Martha Rogers have done it again! This is their best book yet, following a string of six best sellers. If you're a fan of Peppers and Rogers - like me - Return on Customer is the book for you. It's the first of their strategic publications which brings the concepts of customer-centric relationship management into firm alignment with the priorities of executives charged with the long-term valuation and economic survival of a business enterprise. Here's why Return on Customer is important: It describes... [] Managing to short-term results is damaging [] Public firms are whipsawed by Wall Street and have admitted they would give up economic value in exchange for meeting short-term, "Wall Street" expectations [] An obsession with current earnings at many firms has created a culture of bad management. Executive scandals and questionable accounting are only the most noteworthy symptoms - far more insidious is the corrosive effect this obsession has on management decision making [] Customers are your scarcest resource [] Without customers, you don't have a business. You have a hobby [] Products and services are in over-supply. The only thing in short supply these days? Customers. Customers are difficult to find and hard to keep. In today's business world, customers are even scarcer than capital. Customers are the scarce resource Return on Customer (ROC) is a breakthrough financial metric that can quantify the actual shareholder value you are creating (or, possibly, destroying) with your various business actions and initiatives. Do yourself, your shareholders and your customers a favor - read this book - it ROCs!!!!