Hutch is one of India's leading cellular operators with a strong presence in several major mobile circles. Currently Hutch provides several innovative services for both individual customers and corporate. However, like other cellular service providers, it suffers from high churn rate.
Hence today Hutch needs a effective program to reduce churning. One of the efforts made by Hutch in this direction is in the form of "Retention" team. The job of this team is to contact those customers who wish to terminate their relationship with Hutch and try to find out the reasons behind this step.This team aims to retain the customers by resolving the issues that has forced the customer to take this step. This whole process could be seen as an Exit interview of the customer (in case the customer leaves anyhow).
By going through this process the company gets an insight into what were the issues that were faced by the customers. Then it can do an analysis of the issues so that it is better equipped to handle similar situations in the future. There is also a possibility that the customer himself/herself might suggest a practical solution.Assuming that the people working in the Retention team have discrete powers to resolve the issues at hand then the probability to retain the customer increases.
However the retention of the customer would not be possible if the company representative who is in contact with the consumer has no power at all. If the job is simply to collect data as to why the customer is leaving then it defeats the whole purpose of Retention team. It provides the customer a chance to spend his negative energy.This reduces the probability that the customer will bad mouth the company every time he gets an opportunity.
This is based on the fact that his final moments of truth with the company were a pleasant experience. If there is a reason behind terminating the relationship which is out of control of Hutch, for example customer shifting to a circle where Hutch is not operating currently, then this gives Hutch an opportunity to strengthen its bonds with the customer.For example Hutch can provide information pertaining to that region. This kind of proactive service on the part of Hutch will lead to customer delight and will ensure that if the customer returns to this circle, or if Hutch starts operating in that circle, Hutch will be a preferred choice of the customer.
In case the retention team is successful in retaining a particular customer by successfully resolving the issues that he/she had in the first place, that customer will become more loyal to Hutch.
