Foreword
EN: the forward was written by Rogers & Peppers, so I figured it was worth taking a few notes.
The theory of customer-centric business: you must realize that your customers are the source of all value, and they are not a resource that can be adjusted at will (you can buy more supplies, hire more employees, but you can't instantly control your supply of customers). They are also a scarce resource for which there is a lot of competition.
The most obvious way a customer creates value is by purchasing from a business. The smart business considers the potential lifetime value of each customer rather than seeing a "sale" as a unique and isolated event. In fact, a narrow focus on short-term sales can often be counterproductive to the long-term success of the firm.
What drives a customer to choose one vendor over another in the case of a single sale may be any of a number of factors: convenience, price, habit, etc. But what drives a customer to return to the same company over time is their experience in dealing with that firm.
To become a customer-centric firm, a company must adopt an outside-in perspective. In terms of marketing, each customer is a multichannel customer, and sees your organization as a single entity regardless of the medium. Everything you do contributes to (or detracts from) a singular brand experience.
The present book goes into the details, "how to" manage your multichannel marketing efforts, with an eye toward guiding marketers to make rational choices with respect to their marketing efforts.