Strategies for eliminating a financial services product

As the UK’s retail financial services sector discovers the value of retaining customers it is also becoming aware that product elimination has the potential to damage existing purchasing relationships. Unlike physical goods, where elimination is often undertaken with scant regard for the customer, in financial services the customer is central to the elimination action. The nature of the product and the existence of operational constraints have created two levels of elimination. The first, partial elimination, removes the product from some but not all customers, and requires the organisation to provide on‐going support. Full elimination occurs only when all customers cease to own the product and production is terminated. These two levels of elimination are comprised of different processes that impact on customers in different ways. The way they impact will determine whether wider organisational objectives such as customer retention as an outcome of a product elimination action can be achieved.