It would be easy to say that customer engagement is core business for just about any business. Easy, but not particularly instructive.

The truth is that the degree of customer engagement required or desirable is going to vary by category and from business to business. Do I really want a deep and ongoing relationship with my gas utility? (Answer: only when things go wrong!)

There are some categories, however, such as membership based organisations - eg. sporting, professional and industry associations where customer or member engagement are clearly and unequivocally core business.