[Arif]

I haven't tracked our churn rate but from my month to month comparison I'd say we lose on average 1-3 customers per month out of 100. We gain on average 7-10 new accounts per month so it's not a huge problem however I see it as money walking out the door. WE've been fortunate enough to actually increase our average account bill so while we lose 1-3 accounts per month the replacement accounts are paying more money on average. So I guess it might be a neccessary evil in that our margins improve with little to no additional effort. Current customers aren't willing to pay more for the same service so I guess this is a by product of that.

I used to keep a small database of the accounts we've lost and used it to both improve our customer service and avoid problem customers. The pool business is really small here so we share information on problem customers that don't pay or complain a lot.