What should market leaders and innovators be doing now?
This report underlines the absloutely critical nature of the first 90 days engagement with new customers arguably, no area in customer management is more important. Research from the USA suggests not only very high rates of attrition but also over 70% of all cross selling occurring (with current accounts) in the first 90 days. While this may not be so for all forms of new business there is powerful evidence that across the board the key drivers for the lifetime of the relationship are established at the outset and that cross selling latency is effectively determined then. Right channel follow up and engagement emerges as being of primary importantance.
Huge amounts of effort from marketing and sales go into new customer acquisition. Given the very high cost base associated with this, failure to exploit maximum propensity is unproductive and punitive. Equally, marketing effort outside the 90 days may be seen as giving far less return per £.
The Report concludes that getting the 1st 90 Days right may produce greater returns than almost all other comparable investment. The rationale behind this is based on the fact that resultant business benefits are likely to be more to do with strategy, attitude and leverage applications rather than large scale IT expenditure. Hewson Group also judge that, despite the overwhelming evidence concerning internet trends in other sectors, where 75% of all consumer buying is influenced by the web; some banks and other financial institutions are too slow to react to this fact. Very few European organisations have got hold of the idea that Web2.0 (Inchoate Markets) concepts may be seriously important in terms of customer engagement. Already, some US banks are experimenting with online communities to good effect. The report takes the view that all manner of invention can be applied to the 90 Day period to secure better quality of engagement and that the same invention can be applied to replicating the circumstances with existing clients.