Services will dominate our GNP in the new millennium, and in the service economy the customer is king. Brands will continue to be important, but the most important challenge facing businesses will be the succesful cultivation of profitable customer relationships. Now the authors, all customer service experts, introduce a radical model: the Customer Equity Framework, which changes a firm's old internal focus on price, promotion, product, and distribution to a new external focus on measuring, managing, and building Customer Equity. The drivers of Customer Equity include Value Equity, the customer's objective evaluation of the firm's products and service; Brand Equity, the customer's subjective product assessment; and Retention Equity, the customer's opinion of his or her relationship with the firm. The authors show how to measure each element, then reveal actions every firm can take to strengthen the performance of these key drivers. Providing concrete tools like a Customer Pyramid, DRIVING CUSTOMER EQUITY will revolutionise the way companies look at customers. With important information for Internet marketers - and insights into how important customer loyalty will be to Internet business success.

Author Biography

Roland T. Rust is the Madison S. Wigginton Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Service Marketing at the Owen Graduate School of Management of Vanderbilt University.