How many new friends have you created this month?

“Churn Rate” refers to the number of participants who discontinue their use of a service divided by the average number of total participants. In short, how many customers do you lose versus how many do you gain. A cell phone company would measure the number of customers who quit each month divided by their total number of customers for that month. This ratio or rate would be an indicator of how many customers they are losing each month. Another way of looking at this idea of Churn Rate is to ask: “Are more fish jumping into your boat or out of your boat? Churn Rates can vary by day, month or year. However, the rate measures a very important indicator of business success. I once worked for a company where we hooked a great many new potential clients, but we could not keep them in the boat. The hard work to hook the potential client was lost by poor service and delivery techniques further along in our pipeline.

This same concept of “Churn Rate” can also apply to how we treat our friends, families and loved ones. Do we gain more friends as time goes by or do we lose more? Most of us will lose friends and relatives over a lifetime and somewhat like customers, old friends must be replaced by new friends. My 95 year old aunt told me that while most of her “old” friends had now passed away, she had many new friends. Of course, most of her new friends were now younger than she was. She was a healthy and vital 95 year old widow who kept herself surrounded by a strong support group of diminishing “old” friends but was constantly adding “new” friends. It is possible to do this if you really value the role of friendships in your life and if you have an attitude like Will Rogers who once remarked that” He never met a person he did not like.”

How is your Churn Rate for friends and relatives? Do you wish you had more friends but can seldom find the time for the ones you have? What stops you from spending more time with friends and relatives? How long since you have added some new friends to your support network? How long has it been since you have had contact with your best friends? Do you have a best friend? Are you friends and relatives really important to you? If not, perhaps it is time to find some new friends.