Relationship Management By the Book

Customer "books" are one tool to focus front-line efforts on retention and cross-selling.

As an increasing number of banks embrace a customer-focused strategy for their higher-end retail customers, some are using a relationship management tool called "book of business" to help manage retention and achieve a deeper household penetration.

Banks tend to divide their retail customers into two basic categories: a group of highly profitable customers they wish to hold on to, and a second group of less profitable customers with whom they'd like to have a deeper relationship. Book of business is a tool that enables banks to track and manage how they handle each of these two groups.

Book-of-business data typically contains detailed information about a customer's relationship with his bank, and usually indicates how much annual revenue he provides. This data is then aggregated by branch — generally it's the branch where the customer maintains a checking account if he has one, or the branch where the most transactions are performed. The customers so selected become part of that branch's "book of business."

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