COMPLAINING CUSTOMERS SHOULD BE YOUR BEST FRIENDS
Posted 06-16-2009 at 07:22 AM by oyezkinnola
If after your best efforts, a customer still complains that you are not delivering what you promised to deliver, and then there is need to pay special attention to creating a better customer service. Why? Because when a customer complains, the customer is actually giving you an opportunity that is a second chance to deliver that which you promised. They are giving you the opportunity to convert them from a disappointed customer into a satisfied customer, someone who will buy from you time and again. While repeat customers are highly desirable, there are even more significant reasons why you should care so much about what an unsatisfied customer has to say about your business, products and services.
First, most customers do not even bother to complain. In fact, only 1 in 10 customers do complain. The rest simply disappears into thin air, vowing never to do business with you again. The math behind this behaviour is very troubling. 9 out of 10 disappointed customers never give you an opportunity to convert them into a satisfied customer. They will never spend another dollar with you. This is an incredible cost to your business, as it means you have lost the investments you made in marketing and other customer acquisition activities to get the customer to buy from you in the first place. However, the potential losses do not end there.
The customers rage study conducted by the Customer Care Alliance in 2004 found that 85% of customers shared their experience in dealing with businesses with friends and other people. That is, they let their circle of acquaintances know when they had a positive or negative experience with a particular business. Equally, when we have a bad experience, we tend to warn our friends to avoid business, for fear of experiencing a repeat of that bad experience. What the customer rage study showed, however, is that there are differences in communication frequency, depending on whether we have a bad or good experience.
When a customer is not satisfied with the handling of their complaints, they pass the message to 15 acquaintances about their experience. On the other hand, when a customer is satisfied with how they are being treated, they only tell 6 acquaintances. In short, you get double the negative PR when you fail to take the opportunity presented to rectify the problem.
As other people are hearing details of the negative experience, trust the person telling them the story, they are more likely to pay attention and place weight on that negative word of mouth and avoid your business like the plague.
Today, the internet-email, websites, blogs, social networks etc allows us to have conversations with literally hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people, often simultaneously. In this environment, a motivated individual can actually communicate their dissatisfaction with your product or service to an exponentially larger number of people, potentially causing a significant backlash against your business, and considerable financial pain leading to reduction of revenue.
for more information and in-depth review like this, please visit www.onlinecustomersupport.blogspot.com
First, most customers do not even bother to complain. In fact, only 1 in 10 customers do complain. The rest simply disappears into thin air, vowing never to do business with you again. The math behind this behaviour is very troubling. 9 out of 10 disappointed customers never give you an opportunity to convert them into a satisfied customer. They will never spend another dollar with you. This is an incredible cost to your business, as it means you have lost the investments you made in marketing and other customer acquisition activities to get the customer to buy from you in the first place. However, the potential losses do not end there.
The customers rage study conducted by the Customer Care Alliance in 2004 found that 85% of customers shared their experience in dealing with businesses with friends and other people. That is, they let their circle of acquaintances know when they had a positive or negative experience with a particular business. Equally, when we have a bad experience, we tend to warn our friends to avoid business, for fear of experiencing a repeat of that bad experience. What the customer rage study showed, however, is that there are differences in communication frequency, depending on whether we have a bad or good experience.
When a customer is not satisfied with the handling of their complaints, they pass the message to 15 acquaintances about their experience. On the other hand, when a customer is satisfied with how they are being treated, they only tell 6 acquaintances. In short, you get double the negative PR when you fail to take the opportunity presented to rectify the problem.
As other people are hearing details of the negative experience, trust the person telling them the story, they are more likely to pay attention and place weight on that negative word of mouth and avoid your business like the plague.
Today, the internet-email, websites, blogs, social networks etc allows us to have conversations with literally hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people, often simultaneously. In this environment, a motivated individual can actually communicate their dissatisfaction with your product or service to an exponentially larger number of people, potentially causing a significant backlash against your business, and considerable financial pain leading to reduction of revenue.
for more information and in-depth review like this, please visit www.onlinecustomersupport.blogspot.com
Total Comments 0
