Overview

Table 5.1 shows where customer management (CM) value is being created and destroyed in analysis and planning of the model. Companies appear to be focusing increasingly on customer retention, probably because of the wider awareness that customer acquisition is more expensive than retention. However, the table indicates that this increased focus appears to be carried out at the expense of overall planning and of acquisition planning. Understanding competition still performs well, although deep analysis of competitive positioning is usually absent. Knowledge management scores have fallen, largely because bigger organizations find it hard, in practice, to gain benefits from the capture and use of tacit (for example, soft, intangible) knowledge, without the process becoming too resource-intensive.