The New Customers Are Fickle

What is the impact of a bad customer experience?  Forty four percent of customers stop doing business immediately and another 15% exit as soon as their contract is up!  And, remember the criteria for “bad” has dramatically changed.  Yesterday’s grade of B is now only a C- to customers.  Some customers give warning before departing.  According to the new research 57% of customers have had a bad experience in the last year and 66% have told someone.  When the pocket book gets squeezed, customers are more assertive about letting someone know when they fail to receive value.  Customers at the end of the recession were 14% more likely to complain than before the recession.  The good news is that more are telling the service provider, not just their neighbor. 

Smart organizations beg for candor--they make a big deal about getting customer feedback.  They value real time customer intelligence gathering from front line scouts, not just the rear view mirror perspective of last month’s survey.  They focus on getting their complaint rate up, not down. Complaints mean customers are talking--communicating with hope and courage. Complaints are gifts. Research shows customers who have had a problem and complain when solicited spend twice as much with a company as customers who have a problem and don’t complain. 

Win back the customers you regret loosing.  Research shows that with an effective win-back strategy, the likelihood of turning a lost customer into a returned customer is four times greater than turning a prospect into a customer.