7. PROSPECTS AND CUSTOMERS

Customers and prospective customers (prospects) are both valuable to the bank, but to different degrees. Customers already have a product, or products, and an ongoing relationship with the bank. Prospects will not have a product, but if they are considering buying one within the buying process, they will have a relationship with the bank.

The bank will know considerably more about a customer than it does a prospect: a prospect will have very different values to the bank, but it does not make them less of a priority.

To grow their business, banks need a constant stream of prospects to replace customers who have closed their products, died, or reduced how they use them to a level where they are unprofitable.

Customer Value

To determine the right course of action for customers and segments, the bank must understand the current and future value of its customers.

There are several measures of customer value: historic value; current value; future value and lifetime value. These are discussed in more detail in Level II.