Watch out for customer attrition: customer attrition often balloons following a merger and stays elevated for an extended time. You can keep these loses under control by taking a few simple preventative steps involving the front-line personnel of the merged institution.

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Customer Retention - Cover story

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Watch out for customer attrition: customer attrition often balloons following a merger and stays elevated for an extended time. You can keep these loses under control by taking a few simple preventative steps involving the front-line personnel of the merged institution.

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It is a well-known phenomenon that customer attrition surges following a bank merger and remains elevated for months--even years--afterward. What causes this added loss of customers? And, are there any concrete measures that marketers can take to avoid this problem?

We know that normal attrition averages about 15 percent annually, and that attrition following a merger can rise to 30 percent annually and remain there for a prolonged period before gradually returning to its pre-merger level.

Since the 197...

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