customer life cycle
Home > CRM Definitions - Customer life cycle
SearchCRM.com Definitions (Powered by WhatIs.com)
EMAIL THIS
LOOK UP TECH TERMS Powered by: WhatIs.com
Search listings for thousands of IT terms:
Browse tech terms alphabetically:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

customer life cycle



Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us   

DEFINITION - In customer relationship management (CRM), customer life cycle is a term used to describe the progression of steps a customer goes through when considering, purchasing, using, and maintaining loyalty to a product or service. Marketing analysts Jim Sterne and Matt Cutler have developed a matrix that breaks the customer life cycle into five distinct steps: reach, acquisition, conversion, retention, and loyalty. In layman's terms, this means getting a potential customer's attention, teaching them what you have to offer, turning them into a paying customer, and then keeping them as a loyal customer whose satisfaction with the product or service urges other customers to join the cycle. The customer life cycle is often depicted by an ellipse, representing the fact that customer retention truly is a cycle and the goal of effective CRM is to get the customer to move through the cycle again and again.

LAST UPDATED: 06 Mar 2007

Read more about customer life cycle:
- ClickZ Today expains "Customer Life Cycle: The Buying Continuum".
- DMReview provides the resource "Understanding the Customer Life Cycle".
- SearchCRM.com has links to more information about customer life cycle and CRM.


Do you have something to add to this definition? Let us know.
Send your comments to techterms@whatis.com


Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us   


RELATED CONTENT
Tying trust to customer values with Don Peppers
In this podcast, you'll hear from Don Peppers on tying trust to customer values and building customer trust online, in person, and through an...
Two main factors to building trust with customers
Don Peppers explains the two factors that influence a customer's trust in a company.
Text analytics fueling Voice of the Customer programs
Charles Schwab has begun using text analytics to mine its customer feedback. The maturation of text analytics is fueling these Voice of the Customer...

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS
Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary
call center  (SearchCRM.com)
churn rate  (SearchCRM.com)


About Us  |  Contact Us  |  For Advertisers  |  For Business Partners  |  Site Index  |  RSS
SEARCH 
TechTarget provides enterprise IT professionals with the information they need to perform their jobs - from developing strategy, to making cost-effective IT purchase decisions and managing their organizations' IT projects - with its network of technology-specific Web sites, events and magazines.

TechTarget Corporate Web Site  |  Media Kits  |  Reprints  |  Site Map




All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2000 - 2008, TechTarget | Read our Privacy Policy
  TechTarget - The IT Media ROI Experts