The Research Behind The Business Retention Index™

 

Does a high NPS® or satisfaction score mean a customer will stay?

No. NPS® measures likelihood to recommend. Customer satisfaction scores measure how someone feels right now. Neither one measures what actually matters: whether a customer will remain a customer.

In the early 2000s, we set out to answer a specific question: why do some genuinely satisfied customers leave, while some clearly dissatisfied customers stay? We tested this across thousands of B2B customer relationships, comparing what customers said against what they actually did next.

What is the Business Retention Index™ (BRI™)?

The Business Retention Index™ is a proprietary measurement developed by The Dunvegan Group to predict customer retention — not sentiment, not recommendation likelihood, but the actual likelihood a customer will stay or leave.

How accurate is BRI™?

In our original research, BRI™ correctly identified which customers were headed for defection more than 90% of the time. Since then, we’ve used that same validated model to identify at-risk customers before they leave — not after.

Who developed BRI™?

BRI was developed by Anne Miner, founder of The Dunvegan Group, and her late husband and business partner, Olev Wain, who served as VP of Customer Retention R&D. Their research is documented in B2B Customer Retention – Identifying and Managing At-Risk Customers. Anne continues to hold and apply the measurement in every client engagement today.

Why doesn’t NPS® catch this?

NPS® was designed to measure advocacy, and potential growth through referrals, not retention. Our research found real, repeatable patterns where the two diverge — loyal customers who won’t recommend you due to scarcity concerns, and satisfied-sounding customers who leave anyway. NPS® cannot distinguish between them. BRI™ can.