Question Bank › The leak is fixed: the company is keeping what i

The leak is fixed: the company is keeping what it used to lose

Calls Tested
463
Answered YES
5
Hit Rate
1.1%
rare by design

Blackbaud, Inc. (BLKB) — this company's answers

NO on the Q1 2017 call 2017-05-02 B+
The model's full reasoning — Q1 2017 call → NOThe question asks whether management conveys that the company has recently and materially reduced the rate at which it loses what it already has — customers, revenue, product, or people. Looking at the transcript, the key discussion about retention rates comes from Tony Boor's answer to Mark Schappel's question: "Mark W. Schappel - The Benchmark Co. LLC: Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Most of my questions have been answered. I do have one though. And, Tony, this is for you, building on an earlier question. I was wondering if you could address the retention rates in the quarter? I think earlier you touched on this. If I recall correctly, the 2016 churn was around 93% to do the sunsetting of several products. I was wondering if that retention rate is still holding around 93% and when we might start moving forward? Anthony W. Boor - Blackbaud, Inc.: Yeah. It's holding well at 93%. We've, historically, if you're going to look back several years, have been in kind of a 93% to 94% range. So considering all of the portfolio rationalization that we're going through currently, I feel very positive that those rates have held. We have talked a couple of years ago about some analysis we had done and we just recently updated that, which is important to note, thinking about just Mike's last answer to Kevin's question. Our retention rate on Raiser's Edge, Financial Edge has typically been in the low-90% to mid-90% range over the years without the innovation. And we have done some analysis that when a customer also utilized or owned one of our analytic services and utilize our payments platform, then our retention rates actually were up in the very high-90s, i.e., in the 98%, 99% range. The interesting thing is with RE NXT, for instance, that has embedded payments, embedded analytics as well as online solutions and several other pieces all integrated into one suite. So we'd anticipate to see some very positive improvements in retention, assuming we get good quality adoption of all of the NXT feature functionality capability over the years as well. So that should prove to be a very positive on retention rate as we migrate that base of RE and FE over to the NXT models." So, the retention rate is holding at 93%, which is the same as historical 93-94% range. Management says "It's holding well at 93%" — this is not an improvement; it's holding steady.

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Show the exact prompt the model was given
Using ONLY the supplied earnings call transcript and no outside information: On this call, does management convey that the company has RECENTLY AND MATERIALLY REDUCED THE RATE AT WHICH IT LOSES WHAT IT ALREADY HAS — that is, an outflow of customers, revenue, product, or people that the company historically experienced has narrowed in a way management treats as a real and durable change in the business, grounded in something the company did or fixed? Answer YES when management's own words convey, in whatever form fits the business, ONE coherent development: the company is now keeping customers, revenue, product, or people that it used to lose, and this is already observable in the current business. The outflow may take whatever form fits the industry, and any genuine expression of this counts — for example: customers cancelling, not renewing, or drifting away at materially lower rates than before; renewal, retention, repeat, or reorder behavior stepping up beyond the company's own historical norm; revenue or contracts that used to roll off now continuing; products being returned, failing, or generating claims or rework at materially lower rates; patients, subscribers, or members staying on longer than they used to; tenants, distributors, or partners defecting less; employees or key people quitting at markedly lower rates. Management should present the improvement as (a) a CHANGE from the company's own past experience — not merely a standing feature of the business, and not merely better than competitors or better than feared — and (b) something with a reason behind it that management believes will hold — such as a product, quality, reliability, service, or fit problem that was fixed, a change in who the company serves or how it serves them, or a structural feature now binding customers more tightly — rather than as a lucky quarter. Answer NO if the company simply reports strong retention, loyalty, low churn, or low returns as an ongoing feature of the business with no described improvement versus its own past. NO if the improvement is attributed mainly to a price increase masking losses, a shift in customer or business mix, a one-time event, or normal seasonality. NO if the reduced outflow is only hoped for, targeted, or expected in future periods rather than already observed. NO if the only improvement described is in winning NEW business, with nothing about losing less of what the company already has. NO if the idea appears only in an analyst's question that management does not itself affirm. Use only the supplied transcript. Answer only YES or NO.

Companies that answered YES

TickerCompanyCallDateCall grade
LRN Stride, Inc. Q1 2019 2018-10-23 B
MKC McCormick & Company, Incorporated Q2 2018 2018-06-28 C+
BCOV Brightcove Inc. Q1 2018 2018-04-26 B+
TOUR Tuniu Corporation Q4 2017 2018-03-14 D
BCH Banco de Chile Q3 2016 2016-10-30 B+

How the model reasoned

MKC · Q2 2018 → YESThe question is: Does management convey that the company has RECENTLY AND MATERIALLY REDUCED THE RATE AT WHICH IT LOSES WHAT IT ALREADY HAS — like customers, revenue, product, or people? **YES** Management explicitly describes stabilizing French's mustard distribution points after years of decline, framing it as a reversal of inherited losses through category management efforts (removing duplicative secondary brands, expanding French's share).
BCOV · Q1 2018 → YESThe question is: Does management convey that the company has RECENTLY AND MATERIALLY REDUCED THE RATE AT WHICH IT LOSES WHAT IT ALREADY HAS — like customers, revenue, etc., a real and durable change. ...YES The transcript shows management explicitly linking the 103% recurring dollar retention rate (a multi-year high) to the completion of the commodity pricing reset in the media business.
LRN · Q1 2019 → YESThe question is: Does management convey that the company has RECENTLY AND MATERIALLY REDUCED THE RATE AT WHICH IT LOSES WHAT IT ALREADY HAS — like reduced churn or improved retention that's a real cha...

More from the question bank

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Not investment advice. Artul.ai publishes AI-generated earnings-call quality grades and expected-volatility estimates — never buy or sell recommendations. We tested over 1,600 predictive hypotheses against 165,000 transcripts; the honest result, including what failed, is documented in our methodology.