The classic customer lifecycle diagram is useful but gives equal weight to every phase — which does not reflect reality. And many companies ignore whether any phase is more important than any other, mistakenly prioritizing the prepurchase phases (discover, explore, and buy), while most of their customers care far more about what happens afterward (the use, ask, and engage phases). This short report examines why this is a business mistake and explains how customer experience (CX) professionals should recast the customer lifecycle to help align investment with strategy.