This report underlines the absloutely critical nature of the first 90 days engagement with new customers – arguably, no area in customer management should now be seen as more important.  The highest rates of attrition occur in this time frame but also up to 75% of cross selling – either actual or potential is determined in the same period.  A fact that, once understood, has profound implications for overall marketing strategies and IT investment.

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. Customers make defining judgements very early on and poor onboarding is potentially disasterous.  Furthermore, customers are also at their most generous in terms of attitude and most likely to be using Inbound channels and creating opportunities for dialogue. There is a  willingness to give information in the early days of the relationship that may never be repeated.  All interactions should be ‘Intelligent’ from a consumer perspective and shape ‘right channel follow up’ –  without which there is little hope of a productive relationship.

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 appreciable 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 where 75% of all consumer buying is influenced by the web; banks and other financial institutions are too slow to react to this fact.  Too few European organisations have got hold of the idea that Web2.0 concepts may be seriously important in terms of customer engagement whereas some US banks are experimenting with ideas about online communities.