The Customer Centricity Playbook: Implement a Winning Strategy Driven by Customer Lifetime Value

by Peter Fader, Sarah E. Toms

Overview

2019 BEST BUSINESS BOOK, DIGITAL BOOK WORLD
2019 AXIOM BUSINESS BOOK AWARD WINNER
 
Featured in Forbes, NPR’s Marketplace, and a Google Talk, The Customer Centricity Playbook offers “actionable insights to drive immediate value,” according to Neil Hoyne, Head of Customer Analytics and Chief Analytics Evangelist, Google.
 
How did global gaming company Electronic Arts go from being named “Worst Company in America” to clearing a billion dollars in profit? 
 
They discovered a simple truth—and acted on it: Not all customers are the same, regardless of how they appear on the surface.
 
In The Customer Centricity Playbook, Wharton School professor Peter Fader and Wharton Interactive’s executive director Sarah Toms help you see your customers as individuals rather than a monolith, so you can stopwasting resources by chasing down product sales to each and every consumer.
 
Fader and Toms offer a 360-degree analysis of all the elements that support customer centricity within an organization. In this book, you will learn how to:
 

• Develop a customer-centricstrategy for your organization
• Understand the right way to think about customer lifetime value (CLV)
• Fine tune investments in customer acquisition, retention, and development tactics based on customer heterogeneity
• Foster a culture that sustains customer centricity, and also understand the link between CLV and market valuation
• Understand customer relationship management (CRM) systems, as they are a vital underpinning for all these areas through the valuable insights they provide

Fader’s first book, Customer Centricity, quickly became a go-to for readers interested in focusing on the right customers for strategic advantage. In this new book, Fader and Toms offer a true playbook for companies of all sizes that want to create and implement a winning strategy to acquire, develop, and retain customers for the greatest value.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613630907
Publisher:	University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication date:	10/30/2018
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	136
Sales rank:	311,962
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Peter S. Fader is the Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is the co-founder of Theta Equity Partners, which focuses on customer-based corporate valuation and is also the author of Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage.

Sarah E. Toms is executive director and co-founder of Wharton Interactive. She has spent more than twenty years as a leader in the technology sphere, and was an entrepreneur for more than a decade, founding companies that built global CRM, product development, productivity management, and financial systems.

Editorial Reviews

"A fantastic 360⁰ analysis of how companies become truly customer-centric, The Customer Centricity Playbook is required reading.” —Neil Hoyne, Head of Customer Analytics and Chief Analytics Evangelist, Google


"A must-read, The Customer Centricity Playbook, by Peter Fader and Sarah Toms... gives executives tools to drive growth.” —Aimee Johnson,
Senior Vice President, Digital Customer Experience, Starbucks


“The Customer Centricity Playbook offers fundamental insights to point organizations of any size in the right direction.” —Rob Markey, Partner, Bain & Company, Inc., and coauthor, The Ultimate Question 2.0
 


“Required reading for leadership teams, as well as marketing and sales executives.” —Matthew Derella, Global Vice President, Revenue and Content Partnerships, Twitter


“If you struggle with customer engagement or are ready to better acquaint yourself with your customers, Peter Fader and Sarah Toms’ new book The Customer Centricity Playbook is a must-read.” —Jacqueline Parkes, Chief Marketing Officer and EVP, Digital Studios, MTV, VH1 & Logo


“Essential reading for those who aspire to market leadership, regardless of industry.” —Joshua Kanter, Chief Marketing Officer, PetSmart


“Peter Fader and Sarah Toms offer transformative insights that light the path for business leaders.” —Susan Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer, SunTrust Banks


“I read The Customer Centricity Playbook by Peter Fader and Sarah Toms in a single sitting.” —Robbie Kellman Baxter, Consultant, Peninsula Strategies, and Author, The Membership Economy

From the Publisher

"Required reading for leadership teams, as well as marketing and sales executives."

Matthew Derella

"The Customer Centricity Playbook offers fundamental insights to point organizations of any size in the right direction."

Rob Markey

"I read The Customer Centricity Playbook by Peter Fader and Sarah Toms in a single sitting."

Robbie Kellman Baxter

2018-10-22

A detailed strategy focuses on making a business efficiently responsive to customers.

In his debut book, Fader (Customer Centricity, 2012) made the case that an emphasis on customer satisfaction was a superior scheme to one that concentrated on product. In this work, he and debut author Toms fully explicate the meaning of such a tactic—"customer centricity"—and argue that it's more commonly embraced than understood. The authors define customer centricity as "a strategy that aligns the development and delivery of a company's products and services with the current and future needs of its highest valued customers in order to maximize these customers' long-term financial value to the firm." A business's patrons aren't homogenous and shouldn't be treated as such—some simply promise more overall value, or "customer goodness," over time. The authors describe a "predictive measurement" that allows one to estimate the total future benefit likely generated by a consumer: "customer lifetime value." The authors recommend and thoroughly explain, in language mercifully light on technical business jargon, a "customer relationship management" system that governs both the acquisition and retention of consumers and relies on the targeted use of available data and the efficient allocation of limited resources. In addition, they apply their assessment of customer worth to an impressively comprehensive approach to corporate valuation that essentially includes the patron base as a measurable asset. The knowledge and expertise of this authorial pair are beyond reproach: "Fader is the Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania," and "Toms is executive director and cofounder of Wharton Interactive." For such a brief monograph, an extraordinarily vast intellectual landscape is covered in a way that is easily digestible. In addition, the authors don't shy away from shattering conventional wisdom, especially evident in their treatment of demographic segmentation and personas as marketing tools. This should become an authoritative introduction to customer-centric business strategies.

A rigorous and lucid contribution to the literature on contemporary marketing theory.

Kirkus Reviews

"Essential reading for those who aspire to market leadership, regardless of industry."

Joshua Kanter

"If you struggle with customer engagement or are ready to better acquaint yourself with your customers, Peter Fader and Sarah Toms' new book The Customer Centricity Playbook is a must-read."

Jacqueline Parkes

"A fantastic 360-degree analysis of how companies become truly customer-centric, The Customer Centricity Playbook is required reading."

Neil Hoyne

"A must-read."

Aimee Johnson

"Peter Fader and Sarah Toms offer transformative insights that light the path for business leaders."

Susan Johnson