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 - a nd technology now makes it possible for companies are exploiting that potential. Most managers continue to view the world through the twin l enses of mass marketing and mass production. To handle increasingly tu rbulent and fragmented markets, they try to churn out a greater variet y of goods and services and to tailor their messages to ever finer mar ket segments. But they end up bombarding their customers with too many choices. A company that aspires to give customers exactly what they w ant must use technology to become two things: a mass customizer that e fficiently provides individually customized goods and services, and a one-to-one marketer that elicits information from each customer. The p rocess of acquiring those skills will bind producer and consumer toget her in what the authors call a learning relationship - an ongoing coll aboration to meet the customer's needs over time that will continually strengthen their bond. In learning relationships, individual customer s teach the company about their preferences and needs. The more they t each the company, the better it gets at providing exactly what they wa nt and the harder it becomes for a competitor to entice them away. A c ompany that can cultivate learning relationships with its customers sh ould be able to retain their business forever, provided that it contin ues to supply high-quality customized products or services at competit ive prices and does not miss the next technology wave.