Phrase of the Day: "Transaction Myopia"

Just tripped across a great turn of phrase from Peppers and Rogers: "Transaction Myopia."  Good stuff, and worth checking out. (Via CRMAdvocate)

The key bit:

"It's far easier for almost any business manager to think in terms of transactions completed-whether you talk about products sold, or calls handled, or loyalty points awarded-than it is to think in terms of asset values improved (i.e., lifetime values increased because of strengthened relationships). And obviously, having better transactional data will help any firm do a better job in making customer-centric decisions. But even sophisticated statistical analysis will not necessarily change the mind-set of the executives involved. 

We often say that thinking in customer terms, rather than transaction terms, is like seeing a different dimension of your business. Rather than focusing on one type of transaction (or product) at a time, and trying to sell that transaction to as many customers as possible, the truly customer-oriented firm will focus on one customer at a time, and try to line up for that customer as many transactions as possible, over the life of that customer's relationship with the firm. 

For most businesses, the product transaction is the hero. But for truly customer-centric businesses, the customer is the hero. So, rather than trying to find more customers for your products (which is the primary objective for product managers), a customer-centric approach involves trying to find more products for customers. And this means someone has to be in charge of the customer relationships, one customer at a time."

You can read the whole thing here.

(N.B. Unfortunately, it's behind a not-customer-friendly registration wall.  A wee bit of pot-kettle-black...)

photo: chuck revell