UK businesses lose £600m from ‘home movers’

UK businesses are losing a combined £600m a year - and could be missing out on a total profit opportunity of £115m - by not engaging early enough with customers who are intending to move house.

These are the startling findings of a new white paper released today by Callcredit Information Group. The document, Home Movers - an overlooked marketing opportunity?, explores the level of churn associated with home movers and the steps that businesses can take to minimise their losses.

Written by Callcredit's head of consulting, Paul Kennedy, it reveals that mortgage providers fare the worst when their customers move house, losing an estimated £367m a year to churn. Utilities, telecoms, TV, insurance and life assurance providers are also badly affected, losing around £230m between them.

Research shows that home movers spend an average of £5,000 on products and services related to their move, but this is also the time when consumers are most likely to change providers, with 65 per cent of people switching to a new supplier when they move. The white paper highlights that today's consumers, driven by concerns about money, are much more likely to shop around for the best deals, with the help of price comparison sites and peer-to-peer networking.

With almost 10 per cent of households across the UK having moved home within the last 12 months, and with property transactions recently reaching their highest level for 18 months, the white paper explains that home movers are a lucrative market for both acquisition and retention, but many businesses are overlooking the opportunities that these consumers present.

Callcredit recently unveiled its Home Move Triggers Daily Alert service, which can identify consumers at every stage of the moving cycle - from putting their home on the market and looking to secure a mortgage, through to completing the sale or signing a new rental contract - for use in targeted marketing campaigns.

Paul Kennedy said: "Despite the difficult economic conditions, the home mover market is big and growing steadily. For marketers, moving home represents a great and actionable communication trigger, but due to lack of resources and awareness, too many businesses ignore this opportunity.

"By highlighting, in actual terms, the revenue lost to home mover churn - which we estimate as being £600m annually across the six key product areas of mortgages, electricity / gas, telecoms, pay TV, home insurance and life assurance - we hope that businesses will realise the benefits of tapping into this market in both retaining existing, profitable customers and acquiring new ones. With home moves starting to peak over the coming months, it is time to act - because if you don't, your competitors will."

The white paper is in four sections and is available for download from URL www.callcredit.co.uk/home-move-wp