• Services
      • Customer
        Strategy
      • Customer Management Development
      • Partner Relationship Survey
      • Customer Segmentation
      • Organisational
        Performance
      • AMPLIFY – Account Management Programme
      • Training and Development
      • Trust Capability Builder
  • Knowledge Centre
      • Blog
      • Publications
      • News
      • Insight Webcasts
  • Who we work for
  • Who we are
      • Our People
      • Partners
  • Contact us
  • Menu Menu
You are here: Home1 / Customer Strategy2 / Customer Management3 / Rehabilitating the word ‘equitable’ in B2B customer relati...

Rehabilitating the word ‘equitable’ in B2B customer relationships

February 28, 2015/in Customer Management /by Peter Lavers
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email

In the history of the UK’s financial services industry the name The Equitable Life still stands out in infamy as a company whose public failure in 2000 had drastic consequences for its customers and shareholders.

This is not a blog about that episode, but an attempt to rehabilitate the word “equitable”, which was undeniably tarnished by the whole affair.
I’m convinced that one of the reasons why that company achieved the success that it did is that it had a good brand. It proclaimed itself to be trustworthy (first & oldest mutual life assurance company in the UK), and fair. Many customers were attracted to it because it matched their own personal values. This only made the shock of failure greater.

But why try and rehabilitate such a word? Well, it’s a great term! The (business) dictionary definition of equity in this context is:

Fairness and impartiality towards all concerned, based on the principles of evenhanded dealing. Equity implies giving as much advantage, consideration, or latitude to one party as it is given to another. Along with economy, effectiveness, and efficiency, Equity is essential for ensuring that extent and costs of funds, goods and services are fairly divided among their recipients.”

Source: www.businessdictionary.com

It’s ironic that The Equitable Life was predominantly a B2C company, because it’s in B2B that the word perfectly describes how the customer/supplier relationship should work!

In B2B, it is patently not in the long-term interests of the client company to have weak and failing suppliers – yet we all-too-often see the effects of short termism and commoditisation in big business, forcing cuts down the supply chain.

Indeed, many big organisations give the impression in how they act (although often not in what they say) that they don’t care about their suppliers.

In short, the concept of equitable trading – “evenhanded dealing” has been sacrificed to short-term gain and knee-jerk reaction to economic circumstances.

This is why our Customer Attuned model has equitability at its heart as one of the three vital underpinning drivers of B2B success (alongside trust and interdependence). We passionately believe that building equitability into your customer management will deliver sustained, profitable competitive advantage for your business.

 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Peter Lavers
Peter Lavers
Peter Lavers is a co-founder and Director of Customer Attuned Ltd.

An expert in CRM and customer experience management, Peter is regularly recognised as a top influencer in the subject.

He's a SAS Collaborator and IBM Futurist; and regularly features in "top people to follow" lists for Customer Experience, Customer Service and Customer Success.

His early career was 18 years with Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motors, after which he jumped the fence into business consulting, helping clients improve customer experience and value.
Peter Lavers
Latest posts by Peter Lavers (see all)
  • Entrepreneurialism in B2B sales - May 7, 2025
  • When is a B2B Customer/Supplier Relationship a “Partnership”? - May 1, 2024
  • The Customer Attuned “Infinity Loop” of Customer Centricity Explained - December 8, 2023
Tags: B2B Customer Management, B2B Trust, Building Trust into your Customer Plans, Business Requirements Definition, CRM Readiness, Customer Experience Improvement, Customer Information Planning, Customer Proposition Development, Customer Relationship Strategy, Distributor / Intermediary Management, Distributor Management & Development, Equitability, Intermediary / Broker Management and Development, Key Account Management
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
http://customerattuned.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/logo-1.svg 0 0 Peter Lavers http://customerattuned.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/logo-1.svg Peter Lavers2015-02-28 14:58:172022-06-23 10:40:00Rehabilitating the word ‘equitable’ in B2B customer relationships
You might also like
Featured Video Play Icon
RBS vs O2 – Understanding the power and value of trust
Featured Video Play Icon
‘More and Better for Less’
Featured Video Play Icon
CONTACTUM Sales Academy
Truth Loyalty Webinar
Featured Video Play Icon
Top 5 Obstacles to B2B Customer Centricity #5 Out of Date IT Tools
Featured Video Play Icon
AMPLIFY Account Management Training and Trust

Customer Centricity Loop


Customer Attuned builds a culture of customer centricity based on B2B Trust so that sustainable, mutually beneficial and profitable relationships are maintained.

These service areas are interdependent: improve your Customer Strategy and your Organisational Performance improves, improve your Organisational Performance, and watch how Customer Strategy goals are met.

View Full Model

Other posts in ‘Customer Management’

  • Should you implement NPS in B2B?  
  • Trust-Based Customer Segmentation
  • Segmentation for Customer Success
  • Customer Segmentation for Sales
  • The B2B Customer Segmentation Canvas for Marketers

or select a new blog category to view

 

 

 

building a culture of customer centricity based on B2B Trust

Let‘s chat!

© Copyright Customer Attuned, All rights reserved 2025    |    Website by ZeroDotNine
By using this website you consent to our use of cookies, for further information please refer to our privacy policy.
  • Privacy Policy
Interdependence in B2B customer management – what do we mean?Taking trust for granted is not a neutral option
Scroll to top

Customer Attuned uses industry-standard cookies on this website to monitor and continually improve your experience of it. You can read more about our use of this information and any personal information that you submit on our Privacy Policy. Use of this website demonstrates agreement with this policy.

Accept settingsHide notification onlySettings

We respect your privacy rights



How we use cookies

Customer Attuned uses industry-standard cookies on this website to monitor and continually improve your experience of it. You can read more about our use of this information and any personal information that you submit on our Privacy Policy. Use of this website demonstrates agreement with this policy.

I have read and agree with the Privacy Policy

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy
Accept settingsHide notification only