Businesses worldwide will have to improve service to its customers if they want to stay profitable in the cut-throat world of e-commerce according to a leading expert.

Patricia Seybold, author of Amazon.com's best selling e-business title Customers.com, spoke to The Royal Gazette after her speech at eCC Bermuda 2000 on Monday.

She explained that the all powerful force in business on the Internet was the customer. And to stay on top on-line, businesses had to re-evaluate customer service.

Ms Seybold said she had seen good examples on the Island of companies taking advantage of e-business opportunities, but warned that all companies would have to look to their customer satisfaction to continue to be competitive.

"Customers are becoming more demanding every day,'' she said. "They want immediate service and have taken control. They are the ones in the driving seat. If they are not satisfied, they will go somewhere else. Businesses have to change the way they function to respond to this new way of working.'' And she said that the value of customer's to a company's overall value first became evident when AOL took over the much larger Time Warner.

"AOL's customers were worth twice what Time Warner's customers are worth. The little company could buy the bigger company because the market value of both had been affected by customers. AOL's customers were worth about $5,000 each, Time Warner's about half of that. People said, how can this happen? It happened because of the value of the customers in the overall weight of the company. There is now a deeper value with customers.'' And she said that valuing companies by their customer worth helped to put a value on businesses in the current fluctuating markets.

Ms Seybold said that companies had to give customers the best branded experience.

"By this I do not mean pictures and logos, what it is about is what the customer's experience of the company is,'' she said.

"How quickly do you respond to me and my needs and how loyal are you going to be. These are the questions asked now by the all-powerful customer.'' Customer is king -- CEO Group, said she had found great innovation in Bermuda and picked out Bank of Bermuda and First Atlantic Commerce as two of the best examples she had come across.

"I think a number of Bermuda companies have done a really good job playing on the trusted financial institution. It is blue chip and is very secure, Bermuda's brand of e-commerce. Bank of Bermuda, in their multi currency efforts and First Atlantic Commerce are the two that come to mind. They are really targeting institutions and have found niche markets and have worked out what the customer wants.'' BUSINESS BUC