If economic downturns and times of recession have taught American businesses anything, it’s that developing customer relationships is a much more profitable strategy than many might have believed in the past. Gone are the days when customers were disposable, today’s approach is all about maximizing loyalty and slowing churn in order to increase the profit per customer and reducing marketing costs. In fact, Gallup found that a customer who is actively engaged with a brand actually represents a 23 percent increase in terms of wallet share compared to the average. A lot of what it takes to make that engaged customer starts