‘Churn’ is the expression used to describe how many customers are leaving a business. Companies should do everything they can to keep this to a minimum but a constantly changing customer base seems to have become the norm in many industries. Telephone companies, broadband suppliers, gas and electric are just some of the industries where effectively swapping customers at regular intervals is accepted as par for the course. Your initial reaction may be that there’s no harm in it as long as overall customer numbers do not drop. However, it is far more expensive to obtain new customers than it is to retain old ones. Many companies have recognised this and try far harder to retain existing customer but for other companies it may be time to change their sales training.

Most people seem to have a mobile phone these days. Initially everybody took out a 12 month contract. In the early days of the industry there were stories of appalling customer service and consequently people would often change suppliers at the end of the 12 months. It has to be said they did not necessarily find the customer service at the rival business any better and would keep changing. Companies got their act together, ensured call centres were properly manned and are even confident enough now to insist on 18 or 24 month contracts.