Posted by Ajay Kelkar on Mon, Dec 08, 2008
New customer attrition within the first three to six months can be up to 200 percent higher than annualized rates. And the simple act of calling or sending a letter to new customers to thank them for their business and explain the features of the product they just purchased can go a long way in ensuring their satisfaction. Research shows that because customers with two or more services are 33 percent less likely to leave the bank, cross-selling should a major objective of an on-boarding program. Research also shows new customers are six times more likely to open new accounts when compared to prospects. And 75 percent of cross-sales from retail checking customers occur within 90 days of account opening. The cover story on on-boarding in the ABA’s Bank Marketing magazine says banks need to: “Create a structured program to cross-sell new people and lock them in — so that deposits don’t go out the back door as fast as they come in the front.” Here is an interesting article from the Bank marketing magazine: Interestingly Ron Shevlin has this take about how cross selling along with On-boarding is just such a bad idea! His view is that we should ensure that the on-boarding process focuses on “helping your new customers make the best use of the products or services they’ve ALREADY signed on for”. He goes on to add that “In many respects, developing a customer relationship isn’t very different from developing a personal relationship. There has to be some mutual trust, mutual benefit, and some degree of engagement. Sorry for the crude analogy, but cross-selling new customers practically immediately after they become customers is like asking someone you just met at a bar back to your place.” Read Ron’s interesting comments on cross selling At Cequity , we wonder how this process works out in the “growth markets”. Especially in under banked countries like India where there is just such a mad rush to acquire new customers that the entire notion of running a “welcome process” seems just so alien! And yet the On-boarding process is also so strongly linked to even “regulatory” processes like “Know your customer” which bankers are supposed to follow!