Describe and compare the four types of customers classified by their potential profitability to an organization. Explain how an organization should manage each type of customer

What will be an ideal response?

The four types of customers are strangers, butterflies, true friends, and barnacles. "Strangers" have low potential profitability and loyalty. A company's offerings do not fit well with a stranger's wants and demands. Companies should not invest in building a relationship with this type of customer. Another type of customer in which a company should not invest is the "barnacle." Barnacles are highly loyal but not very profitable because there is a limited fit between their needs and the company's offerings. The company might be able to improve barnacles' profitability by selling them more, raising their fees, or reducing service to them. However, if they cannot be made profitable, they should be "fired." Like strangers, "butterflies" are not loyal. However, they are potentially profitable because there is a good fit between the company's offerings and their needs. Like real butterflies, this type of customer will come and go without becoming a permanent, loyal consumer of a company's products. Companies should use promotional blitzes to attract these customers, create satisfying and profitable transactions with them, and then cease investing in them until the next time around. The final type of customers is "true friends"; they are both profitable and loyal. There is a strong fit between their needs and the company's offerings, so the company should make continuous relationship investments in an effort to go beyond satisfying and to delight these customers. A company should try to convert true friends into customer evangelists who tell others about their good experiences with the company.