ABSTRACT
In the quest for sustainable competitive advantage, managers have sought to differentiate themselves through a customer (as opposed to product) focus. This has given rise to successive strategies designed to improve the customer experience (e.g., objective quality, service quality, customer satisfaction, customer retention, customer loyalty, etc.). The problem, however, is that a satisfied, loyal customer who is persuaded to consistently buy a firm's product or service over and over again because of its quality can be and often is unprofitable. 2Therefore, using such strategies does not guarantee increased profits. As a result, firms will increasingly rely on the measurement and management of customers' lifetime values to guide (their customer loyalty efforts. doi:10.1300/J366v05n02_01 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-8OO-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: < https://www.HaworthPress.com >© 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
