Risks

The risks for companies that fail to properly deploy best practices with respect to customer life cycle marketing include:

• Inappropriate use of data, including "big data," and failing to follow through with it in order to see the big picture and customer narratives that underpin sales.
  
• Poor deployment of technology and systems, for example not using the right capabilities in a campaign deployment system, or in-store, or a customer call center system.
• Lack of follow-through on data garnered (for example, not looking back at data from six months earlier to see how it affected customer behavior), which can lead to misinterpretation of customer data and rash responses that aren't rooted in all of the relevant information.
• Data and privacy breaches that can destroy a brand.
• Production snafus such as sending the wrong versions of emails to customers, typos on websites, broken links or missing content.

Opportunities

The opportunities for companies that adopt best practices with customer life cycle marketing include:

• Dramatic increases in the relevance and value of interaction with customers.
  
• Identification of opportunities to drive more revenue from existing customers.
• Greater efficiencies across the organization, fueled by coherent strategies and data.
• Identification of new market and revenue opportunities.
• Fresh ways of connecting with customers, including new ones.