Generally, loyalty programs are considered less expensive to maintain than allowing customer defection or 'churn'.

"We do not expect major fallout from customer defections," Mr. Israel wrote in an investors' note on Wednesday.

Its credit-card business had been hurt in 1992 and 1993 by customer defections and bad credit-card loans.

He must contend with a steady wave of customer defections and with the dispiriting effects of a sluggish stock market.

Customer retention is the activity that a selling organization undertakes in order to reduce customer defections.

She added that a study by the firm had found that poor service was responsible for 40 percent of customer defections.

The companies are reluctant to implement the measure, fearing it will create new costs while also encouraging customer defections.

Played correctly, a big company can delay customer defection by years and years, hopefully, enough time to have a credible competitive response.

When the Salomon scandal first arose, fear that customer defections could sink the firm were rampant.

The cable industry has noticed that enhanced programming reduces customer defection - or churn.