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offer that should persuade customers to come to you first and stay with
you. It should answer the question “from the customer’s point of view
what makes us different and better?”

Customer retention Research by Reichheld of Bains and Company has
shown that customer retention is the key to employee retention, investor
satisfaction and profitability. The essential is to attract and retain the right
customers and that suggests that you need to ask questions that will lead
to the effective targeting of customers, because some customers are more
trouble than they are worth.

D

Database Details of your customers and the computer software that
facilitates the keeping and updating of the records. Properly speaking the
software is a databank. With the growth of interest in Customer Relations
Management the value of an efficient database cannot be overstated.

Debenture Investment in the form of a long-term loan guaranteed by
specific assets.

Delayering An ugly word usually taken to be the removal of unnecessary
levels of bureaucratic management. In e-commerce it can also mean the
removal of unnecessary intermediaries. Almost every advance in e-commerce
is opposed by intermediaries who believe that they will lose out where cus-
tomers can get a better deal at lower cost. Instead of bemoaning the poten-
tial reduction of margin, some would be wiser to ask “how can we do more
business at lower cost and deliver a real win-win service to the customer?”

Development capital Investment that is intended to fund growth
rather than start-up of a business.

Direct costs The actual cost of materials and direct labour used in
making a product.

Domain name Unique address identifying each site on the internet, usu-
ally of two or more segments separated by full stops. In e-commerce terms
there has been a fashion for thinking up even sillier domain names than
names of pop groups. This is a serious mistake. Search engines increas-
ingly look for domain names that match a product or service that the user
has entered to search against. Is there really any sense in having a domain
name (or expensive television advertising) that gives the prospective cus-
tomer absolutely no idea of what you offer?

Downtime Time when an employee or machine is not working efficiently.
In most companies much longer and more frequent than is admitted. The
Auschwitz syndrome often causes employees to look busy while in effect
“firing the company” by wasting time. One disadvantage of the internet is
that it can provide an alibi for “goofing off”.

Glossary (and soapbox) 235