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nce about the products and the services offered by the supplier and the switching costs are still low in this stage. During the Growth phase there usually is a sharp rise in purchases; the customer now knows the advantages offered by the supplier, satisfactions with goods and services increase; the supplier is examined more for its performance than for its reputation or image. The Saturation phase is characterized by the highest number of purchases and the highest degree of commitment (function of satisfaction, attractiveness and switching costs); the relation has taken shape. Satisfaction is still increasing in all the aspects and so do the trust. The appeal of the relationship improves and the switching costs increase slightly. The Decline phase starts as soon as the number of transactions starts to drop; This phase can occur at any time (even after the exploration phase); the most common reason is the reduction in the need for the products and services provide by the suppliers.

At any point in this Lifecycle, the customer is either becoming more or less likely to continue maintaining a relationship with a company, and demonstrates this likelihood through their interactions with you.

If a company collects data from these interactions, it can use this data to predict where the customer is in his Lifecycle (is the customer becoming more or less likely to maintain a relationship?) If a company can predict where the customers are in the Lifecycle, it can maximize ones Return on Investment (ROI) by targeting customers most likely to buy, trying to “save” customers who have declining interest, and not wasting money on customers unlikely to continue relationship.

案例--Toyota Case

Toyota Motors Corporation, commonly known simply as Toyota, is a multinational automaker headquartered in Toyota City, Japan. The company founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 has snatched the title of world’s largest automaker from General Motors in 2008 for the first time in 77 years. TMC workforce around the world is about 320.590 people (total in affiliated companies in 2009).

Toyota is also known by has revolutionized the automotive production with the “Just-in-Time” system, the quality of its products and the healthy relationship with the stakeholders. These aspects have made Toyota a reference within the automotive manufacturing environment and its personal approach over the customers during the last years seems keeping Toyota’s brand in the spotlight of the automotive business.

A huge part of the success of Toyota is credited by the obsession with its customers. Beyond the manufacturing strategy it is needed to take care about the non-manufacturing environment. Everything Toyota does is done with customers in mind and it is clear to all staff that totally satisfied customers are the source of good results. It made TMC develop the Lean CRM in response to the growing volume of customer information collected at the many touch-points during the customer lifecycle.

The Lean CRM allows Toyota to sense changes in individual customers' behaviour, following their current lifecycle status and responding in a way to increases customer satisfaction. It has enabled Toyota to predict what customer wants even before the customer knows he wants it, to sell significantly more vehicles, with a shorter trade cy