Retaining and divesting customers: An exploratory study of right customers, “at-risk” right customers, and wrong customers

The axiom that “the customer is always right” is no longer valid when companies realize that some of their customers are not right at all. Paying too much attention to these so-called “wrong” customers may jeopardize a company's survival and profitability. Right customers have to be retained, “at-risk” right customers have to be recovered, and wrong customers have to be divested. This study attempts to operationalize the concept of customer “rightness” and “wrongness” in terms of different configurations of attribute satisfaction and overall satisfaction. Based on the result of a discriminant analysis of satisfaction survey data, customers with different configurations of attribute satisfaction and overall satisfaction are re-examined in terms of switching intention, behavioral patterns and demographic characteristics in order to highlight any significant descriptor.