The role of client retention officers

Client retention officers are not always well advertised by credit card companies.  Most credit card companies have one, but they are a well-kept secret.

Client retention officers are not well advertised by credit card companies because credit card companies do not wish to tell everyone that they are willing to do a lot to keep their customers.   They want to keep their customers because the right sort of credit customer can be very profitable.

It costs seven times more to attract a new customer than it does to retain an existing one.  This means that retaining good customers is very important to credit card companies.  Credit card companies find it quite hard to tell between the most profitable type of customer, one who constantly borrows their credit card but never defaults to ones that constantly pay off their credit card and so tend to take more advantage of credit cards than the credit card company takes advantage of them.  As a result credit card companies are anxious to retain most customers who do not have a record of credit card delinquency.

A client retention officer is responsible for keeping the good clients.  They are active in designing ways to keep these customers and to spot early warning signs that the customer is willing to change credit cards.  They are also responsible for negotiating with credit card customers.  These are often the people who will be referred to as “the supervisor” when a person is passed to them by a call center when they have a problem.

It differs from card issuer to card issuer, but a client retention officer often has a large amount of discretion and can choose to exercise it when trying to keep a credit card borrower.  This discretion can include lifting credit limits, changing interest rates (both on purchases and balance transfers) and changing the way a rewards program works.  The client retention officer does not need to change the terms for every borrower, but the discretion is there for most of their officers.

It can be quite easy to take advantage of this degree of discretion and willingness to keep customers.  This is particularly the case when changing credit cards or when negotiating to get better terms or lower interest on the credit card.  Asking for the client retention officer will often by itself increase the willingness of the card company to lower the interest rates.  It is important to realize that the client retention officer may not have as much discretion in some banks as they do in others.