Customer Retention in Telecoms: How EE Reduced Churn by 35%

Customer retention in telecoms has never been more challenging. Furthermore, with switching barriers at historic lows and competitive pressure intensifying, traditional retention strategies are falling short. For instance, basic member perks often sit unused, while discount codes erode profit margins. In addition, complex reward schemes tend to frustrate customers more than they engage them. As a result, these conventional approaches to reducing churn are proving increasingly inadequate. However, some of the UK’s leading telecom providers have discovered a different path entirely.

In this blog we will explore:

• Why traditional telecom loyalty programmes fail to reduce churn effectively
• How brand partnerships deliver customer value without cutting prices
• EE’s 34.5% churn reduction through embedded reward strategies
• Plusnet’s improved retention and 90% higher upgrade rates
• The future of sustainable telecom customer retention

The Problem with Traditional Telco Loyalty

Most telecom loyalty programmes suffer from fundamental structural issues that limit their effectiveness:

Firstly, low engagement rates plague the industry. Traditional loyalty schemes typically see lower redemption rates meaning the vast majority of customers never experience the value they’re supposed to receive.

Secondly, operational complexity creates friction. Multi-tier point systems, confusing redemption processes and delayed gratification often frustrate customers rather than delight them.

Furthermore, generic rewards lack relevance. Standard catalogue-based programmes offer products and services that may have little connection to individual customer preferences or lifestyles.

Meanwhile, discount dependency erodes margins. When retention strategies rely primarily on price reductions, the cost of keeping customers can quickly exceed their lifetime value contribution.

Finally, limited integration hampers adoption. Standalone loyalty platforms that operate separately from core customer touchpoints struggle to achieve meaningful engagement levels.

As a result, many expensive programmes deliver marginal impact on the metrics that matter most: churn reduction, customer lifetime value and organic advocacy.

A New Approach: Embedded Brand Partnership Rewards

Rather than building complex loyalty infrastructures from scratch, forward-thinking telcos are integrating brand partnership rewards directly into their existing customer experience ecosystems. This approach leverages carefully curated partnerships to deliver immediate, relevant value through the channels customers already use regularly.

Specifically, the strategy works by embedding reward opportunities seamlessly into native customer touchpoints such as mobile apps making value delivery feel natural rather than promotional.

Case Study: EE’s Customer-Centric Partnership Strategy

EE faced a familiar challenge: how to reduce churn and increase engagement without resorting to margin-eroding discounts or building expensive new loyalty infrastructure. Their approach through Tyviso’s white-label rewards platform delivered transformational results.

The programme served over 15 million offers to EE customers, demonstrating the ability to operate at enterprise scale without compromising performance or user experience.

Most significantly, customers who engaged with the brand partnership rewards showed a 34.5% reduction in churn rates compared to the control group, a remarkable improvement that directly impacts bottom-line performance.

EE customers accessed an average of £1,500+ in annual savings through the programme, creating substantial perceived value without requiring direct discounts from EE’s services.

The programme achieved a 7% average redemption rate, performing 40% higher than industry benchmarks for telecom loyalty programmes. Even more impressively, 90% of customers who engaged once returned for additional interactions.

Caroline Nakielny, Head of Rewards & Loyalty at EE, reflects on the results: “The proposition is yielding great results, driving great engagement and importantly returning visitors… a best-in-class example of what brand partnerships can deliver.”

Case Study: Plusnet’s Digital Transformation Through Rewards

Plusnet approached brand partnerships as part of a broader digital experience enhancement, integrating reward opportunities into their customer portal redesign. The results demonstrate how embedded rewards can drive multiple business objectives simultaneously.

The programme delivered a 5% reduction in churn, proving that even modest improvements in retention can generate significant lifetime value increases when applied at scale.

Perhaps most notably, customers exposed to the rewards programme were 90% more likely to complete upgrade processes, proving it can scale without compromising performance or user experience.

In addition, the programme’s integration with customer account management drove valuable secondary benefits: customers became 209% more likely to update marketing preferences and 46% more likely to update account details, improving data quality and marketing effectiveness.

Overall site engagement metrics improved significantly, with customers 33% more likely to return to the portal and spending 39% longer on site compared to the previous version.

Amy Metcalfe, Digital Trading Manager at Plusnet notes: “This has really moved the dial on how stakeholders see the channel. We’ve kept the customer at the heart of everything.”

The Strategic Advantages of Partnership-Based Retention

Immediate Value Without Margin Impact

Unlike discount-based retention strategies, brand partnerships deliver customer value without reducing the telco’s own pricing or profitability. Partners fund the rewards, making the programme margin-neutral or positive.

Seamless Integration with Existing Touchpoints

Rather than requiring customers to learn new platforms or processes, partnership rewards integrate directly into familiar customer experience touchpoints like mobile apps and account management portals.

Scalable Performance Across Customer Segments

The approach works effectively across different customer types and usage patterns, from high-value contract customers to price-sensitive prepaid segments.

Real-Time Performance Optimisation

Modern partnership platforms provide detailed analytics and performance tracking, enabling continuous optimisation of offer types, timing and targeting to maximise engagement and retention impact.

Enhanced Data Collection and Customer Insights

Reward interactions provide additional data points about customer preferences and behaviour, enriching segmentation and personalisation capabilities across other marketing channels.

Why Traditional Approaches Fall Short

The success of EE and Plusnet highlights several limitations of conventional telecom retention strategies:

• Cashback programmes can feel transactional rather than relationship-building, doing little to increase brand affinity or reduce switching propensity.
• Exclusive content partnerships frequently have limited appeal across diverse customer bases and can become expensive relative to their retention impact.
• Tiered loyalty schemes often create complexity that frustrates customers and requires significant ongoing management resources.

In contrast, embedded brand partnership rewards offer immediate, tangible value through products and services customers would purchase anyway, creating positive associations with the telecom brand while delivering practical benefits.

Implementation Considerations for Telecom Decision-Makers

1. Technology Integration

Modern partnership platforms integrate through APIs and widgets that minimise technical complexity while maintaining brand consistency across customer touchpoints.

2. Performance Measurement

Success metrics should focus on retention impact, engagement rates, and secondary behaviours like upselling and data quality improvement rather than just redemption volumes.

3. Customer Segmentation

Different customer segments respond to different partnership categories. Understanding these preferences enables more effective targeting and higher engagement rates.

4. Partner Curation

The quality and relevance of brand partners directly impacts programme effectiveness. Leading telcos work with platforms that provide access to diverse, high-quality partner networks.

The Future of Telecom Customer Retention

As the telecommunications industry continues to face competitive pressure and margin constraints, the ability to reduce telecom customer churn without resorting to price competition becomes increasingly valuable. The experiences of EE and Plusnet demonstrate how to increase loyalty without discounts while delivering measurable improvements in retention and engagement.

Brand partnerships for telcos offer a fundamental reimagining of how customer value can be delivered sustainably. By leveraging rewards platform integration for telecoms, providers can create differentiated customer experiences that drive loyalty through value addition rather than price reduction.

The results are clear: significant churn reduction, improved customer engagement and enhanced lifetime value, all achieved without sacrificing margins or requiring massive infrastructure investments.

Moving Beyond Traditional Retention

The telecommunications industry stands at an inflection point. As traditional retention strategies reach their effectiveness limits, companies that embrace innovative approaches to customer value delivery will establish sustainable competitive advantages.

Brand partnership rewards offer a proven path forward, one that preserves margins while delivering the retention results that drive long-term business success. The early adopters are already seeing the benefits in their churn rates and customer satisfaction scores.

The question isn’t whether this approach will become standard practice in telecoms retention. The question is whether your organisation will lead this transformation or follow it.

Want to reduce churn and increase customer value without slashing prices? Book a strategy call with Tyviso to explore how brand partnerships can transform your customer retention strategy.