BSkyB’s customer relationship management (CRM) strategy has seen it keep churn in check and boost revenues from existing customers by 8 per cent, according to its first quarter results released today.
Despite predictions that the churn rate would top 11 per cent, the company managed to keep this down to 10.4 per cent, although this is still up from 9.9 per cent last year. But it has been successful in cross-selling other services, with the average revenue per user rising by 8 per cent to £544 a year – over £45 a month.
Overall the group posted a 32.7 per cent drop in pre-tax profits for the first three months of 2011 from £354m to £238m, but chief executive Jeremy Darroch claimed it was “another good performance”.
Sky saw 543,000 additional customers sign up for broadband, telephony and line rental, 40 per cent higher than the previous year, while 155,000 more took on broadband services; a 53 per cent increase on 2010. Over one in four customers now take all three of TV, broadband and telephony.
HD customers reached 3.7 million, an increase of nearly 50 per cent in the past 12 months.
Marketing spend rose by £69m on the back of what it called “strong product sales in the period” and the ad campaigns promoting home communications, Sky Sports and the launch of Sky Atlantic.
A statement said: “Despite the tougher consumer environment we saw good customer loyalty as customers continue to respond to the quality and value of our wider product range. While household spending is under pressure, customers continue to save money by switching their home communication services to Sky.”
