Though you wouldn t want to base your business on these customers, you would also hate to lose them because they contribute marginal profit and are relatively maintenance free. Losers, such as Customer B, are at the other end of the spectrum from Champions. These are the customers who drain valuable resources from the organization yet provide little in return. Losers may include high-churn customers as well. Clearly, the strategy around each of these customer groups will vary.
Champions are to be nurtured and rewarded.
The strategy around Demanders and Acquaintances should be to enhance their profit contribution by selling upward into more profitable lines while keeping the cost line flat for Acquaintances and managing it downward for Demanders. Losers must be converted into profitable customers through up-selling and a lower cost of service. If their lifetime value can t eventually be made positive, let these customers defect to your competition, and avoid them in future customer win-back campaigns. Once you ve gained insight into the lifetime value of your customers, you ll need to educate them on how their activities drive your cost and their value. Modifying their behavior to reduce the drivers of cost and complexity that they historically have brought to their dealings with you.