Rightfully so, most discussions of Outside-In customer process focus almost exclusively on existing customers. What are the strategies and processes that can be used to increase customer retention and grow share of wallet? These are of course crucial business issues, especially to an organization that is committed to an Outside-In philosophy and seeks growth by focusing on existing customers. While not ignored, far less attention is generally given to lost customers and the issues that contributed to their departure.

In the work that I've done over the past 25 years, one of the fundamental conclusions that I have reached is that companies should spend considerable effort understanding not just the positive factors that influence customers to stay, but also those factors that push them away. My experience is that even those companies that assert that they are Outside-In and “really care” what their customers think will often recoil in near terror when they learn what they...