1 Customer Efficiency : Concept and Its Impact on E - business Management

The continued development of e-business models has triggered a dramatic transition of customers’ roles in a variety of service production and delivery processes. Rather than being the passive recipients of such processes, customers now play much more active and even leading roles. As a result, a customer should be viewed not only as a patron but also as a co-producer of a service. This role transition has many potential impacts on ebusiness management as it brings new light to the solution of some existing problems; e.g., the apparent conflict between a company’s pursuit of productivity and profit and the service quality provided to its customers. In our view, the concept of “customer efficiency” is the key to the solution of such conflicts. In this paper, we present the concept of customer efficiency, study its relationship with other key customer characteristics, and explore its potential impact on e-business management: the strategic reorientation from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to Cus tomer Efficiency Management (CEM).