What kind of relationship do you need to have with your customers? 

• What relationship does your company want/need to have with its target market? If your company serves multiple customer segments, then you want to define what type of relationship you want to have with each customer segment.
• Customer relationship directly affects customer acquisition, retention, and increasing customer lifetime value (LTV).
• What kind of relationship is each customer segment expecting to have with your business?

Your relationship with customers can range from highly personalized to completely automated. This is a big decision because a more automated system can lower the cost of operation but could negatively affect sales and retention. Can you partially automate your relationship with customers? Is it worth the cost to deliver a highly personalized service? Do you have different types of customers that require different kinds of relationships? 

The kind of customer relationships required by your business model will ultimately shape the experience your customers have.

Here are a few examples of customer relationship types: self-service, personal assistance, automated services, and user/member communities. 

‍