Operators admit churn remains a growing problem

Participants in a survey, carried out as part of the research for the report, were asked if they thought churn was a growing problem for mobile operators - the vast majority (88%) felt this was the case. Respondents were also asked their opinion on what they thought was an acceptable level of annual churn as a percentage of total subscribers - given that 88% believe it to be a growing problem. Their responses showed that operators have set themselves tough goals in terms of achieving desirable churn levels. Most respondents (73%) thought annual churn should be 15% or less. CHORLEYWOOD believes that global churn across both sectors (fixed and mobile) to be at an average of 22%. The full survey goes on to determine, among other things, what industry experts think are the key reasons for churn and why they believe it is important to keep churn levels to a minimum. It also addresses operators’ churn strategies both in terms of business processes and technologies used. Any business trying to reduce churn needs to take a strategic approach and therefore churn reduction should be seen as affecting all areas of an operators business from initial planning, through to marketing and interfacing with customers. The report recognises that the use of customer relationship management (CRM) tools goes some way toward addressing the problem but technology is not the only answer. There are other strategies based on business processes which need to be considered such as customer loyalty schemes, customer segmentation and the effective use of web channels. MINIMISING CHURN AND BUILDING CUSTOMER PROFITABILITY proves that by tackling the churn issue an operator should naturally improve its customer relationships which will provide a better opportunity to sell additional services.