The Efficient Relationship Paradox

Customers and clients typically come in basically three varieties. All three types are a function of time. The first is the customer or client of the past - - the one you see in your rear view mirror. This is the customer or client that you lost - - for a multitude of reasons and explanations. The second is the customer or client in the present tense - - the one you just had a meeting with today. The third is the customer or client of the future - - the one on the other side of the mountain.

The Financial Page of the September 6, 2010 issue of The New Yorker has a great take on customers - - past, present, and future:

The real problem may be that companies have a roving eye: they're always more interested in the customers they don't have. So they pour money into sales and marketing to lure new customers while giving their existing ones short shrift, in an effort to minimize costs and maximize revenue. The consultant Lior Arussy calls this the "efficient relationship paradox": it's only once you've actually become a customer that companies put efficiency ahead of attention, with the result that a company's current customers are often the ones who experience its worst service. Economically, this makes little sense; it's more expensive to acquire a new customer than to hold on to an old one, and, these days, annoyed customers are quick to take their business elsewhere. But, because more companies are set up to focus on the first sale rather than on all the ones that might follow, they end up devoting all their energies to courting us, promising wonderful products and excellent service. Then, once they've got us, their attention wanders - -