Andy Tow, Avenir Telecom managing director:
Avenir is, we believe, the only distributor that has reduced churn to single digit figures. In October 2009, my company and our dealer base reduced customer churn on O2 connections to just 8%. It had been steadily declining each month across 2009 and is set to fall even lower in the first quarter of 2010. This single digit result is believed to be the lowest sustainable figure achieved by any distributor of Avenir’s size in the UK mobile marketplace.
Churn has been the industry buzzword all year… We’ve been working tremendously hard with our dealers on this, specifically with our dedicated customer retention team, which is about to celebrate its first anniversary. It’s a whole team of staff that works with both dealers and operators, to tackle specific customer loyalty issues.
They work both proactively and reactively. On the reactive side, they can quickly set up manufacturer visits to customers should they be needed. On the proactive side, they work with operators and dealers to specifically identify and market to wavering customers, both in and out of contract.
We also have ongoing training programmes to help dealers minimise churn and maximise retention. And last summer, we dedicated a whole edition of our customer magazine, Talking Shop, to these issues, covering everything from the 80/20 rule, to tips on building customer loyalty programmes.
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