My little 20-person firm runs about a $1,500-a-month Fed Ex bill. Over ten years, that will total $180,000. I find this simple device, calculating the ten-year (or, alternatively, lifetime) value of a customer, to be very powerful. It has profoundly altered my own thinking.
Stew Leonard, the erstwhile Norwalk, Connecticut, grocer, got me started on this. He says, “When I see a frown on a customer’s face, I see $50,000 about to walk out the door.” His good customers buy about $100 worth of groceries a week. Over ten years, that adds up to roughly $50,000. We all agree that repeat trade is the key to business success; this simple quantifying procedure provides a way to add potency to the idea – From Tom Peters blog
The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory.
– Aldo Gucci –
