Business in the new millennium is more competitive than it's ever been. There will be even more channels to market, even more opportunities for customers to purchase, even more offers and inducements, and even more opportunities for customers to switch.

As customers' expectations continue to rise, and businesses repeatedly fail to meet them, the focus will move away from acquisition to retention. Some customers are inherently loyal and predictable and some are more profitable than others – the 'best' need to be identified and kept, and the 'worst' left to bounce from one new competitor offer to the next. The last ten years has been devoted to developing ways of gaining knowledge of and understanding customers, the next ten years will be devoted to developing ways of using the information. Those that do this effectively will win and those that don't bother will surely fail.