For customer management, the devil is in the details.
8/18/2003
It's fine to please your customers—just not all of them. It's quite possible that the top 20 percent of your customers drive most of your profit, while the bottom 20 percent take it away. Authors Colvin and Seldon want you to concentrate your strokes on folks who are the most profitable to your bottom line. Treat your business as a customer portfolio, they say: analyze customer data, separate the good from the bad, and pursue strategies to transform your demons into angels. Colvin is editorial director of Fortune magazine while Selden is founder and managing director of Selden & Associates.