Posted by Dave Willems, President & CEO
We’ve all had – or at least heard about – our share of horrible customer service experiences. Who can’t relate to the one where you call a toll-free number looking for technical support, get sent to about three different departments (all being the wrong one), sit on hold for 45 minutes and get hung up on in the final transfer process?
To some customers, these less-than-ideal situations may not be the ultimate deal breaker. But as it turns out, this group of overly understanding individuals represents the minority these days. Poor customer service has more power than ever to cost you current and potential clientele. Just consider a few of the more surprising numbers compiled by Customer1 in its 20 Customer Service Statistics blog post.
• 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with your organization again (Source: Lee Resource Inc.)
• 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience, up from 59% four years ago (Source: Harris Interactive, Customer Experience Impact Report)
• It takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one negative experience (Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner)
The next time a customer has a beef, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem, don’t just brush it off. Remember this one last stat Customer1 shares: Attracting a new customer costs 5 times as much as keeping an existing one.
