In The Dangerous Seduction Of LTV, venture capitalist Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital pointed out ten pitfalls associated with one increasingly notorious metric: the lifetime customer value model (LTV).

FORBES: In Defense Of The Lifetime Value (LTV) Formula

Retailers that get the most payback from loyalty programs are careful to measure vital metrics, like gross margin per customer and the lifetime value of a customer, which is tracked by using surveys and following forwarded emails to see who's recommending your store.

FORBES: Loyalty Programs Lose Points With Shoppers

The key to solving this challenge came from calculating their Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

FORBES: The Integration Metric