There is already a great deal written about the importance of the customer in today's online world. But what of the customer's micro community? Every individual has his or her own micro community; a closely-knit circle of family, friends and key influencers. An eRetailer cannot overlook this aspect of a customer's relationship with the business. In the drive to identify and focus on those twenty percent of customers that generate eighty percent of profit for a business, we are in danger of ignoring how micro communities influence shopping behavior. For example, a customer that spends an insignificant amount in your store may be highly influential in the lives and shopping habits of half a dozen other shoppers, some of who could be your most profitable customers. In another example, you might persuade a competitor's customer to buy from you occasionally, but you are not aware of the full potential of this customer. You incorrectly assume this customer is less valuable to you than others in your portfolio, making this a self-fulfilling prophecy by providing sub-optimum customer service. The aim of focused service levels is to increase the retention rate of the most valuable customers. This works best provided it is not done at the expense of your other customers. Unless you are willing to send some of your customers directly to your competitors, you cannot afford to give any customer a level of service that is below their expectations or that does not satisfy their needs. Before making judgments about a customer's worth to the business, it is important to try to get a picture of their micro community. To do this requires the ability to cross-match customers based upon telephone numbers, zip codes, street addresses, names and other personal information, taking into account variations in spelling and keyboard errors. By pooling the information from an entire micro-community, it may be possible to get a more complete picture of a shopper's net worth to the company, including some of the other people influenced by this shopper. Technology Enabled Re-Engineering (TERE) Strategy | Marketing | Technology | Profiles | Industry FREE NEWSLETTER, click here | 