Negative Customer Experiences Lead to Crises

Don’t let negative encounters become crises

Negative customer experiences are often passed off as someone “having a bad day” or excused with statements like, “nothing would make them happy”, but the reality is that dismissing these incidents is setting yourself on the road to crisis. Yes, sometimes there is nothing you can do to please a particular individual, but each issue should be treated as a learning experience to prevent something similar from happening again.

Still doubting the importance of delivering the ideal customer experience? Maybe you should read through these stats from a Return on Behavior article:

96% of unhappy customers don’t complain, however 91% of those will simply leave and never come back – 1st Financial Training services

A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people. – White House Office of Consumer Affairs

Happy customers who get their issue resolved tell about 4-6 people about their experience. – White House Office of Consumer Affairs

Happy customers who get their issue resolved tell about 4-6 people about their experience. – White House Office of Consumer Affairs

70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated – McKinsey

55% of customers would pay extra to guarantee a better service – Defaqto research

Price is not the main reason for customer churn, it is actually due to the  overall poor quality of customer service – Accenture global customer satisfaction report 2008

94% of customers do not want to be transferred to another representative more than once – Mobius Poll 2002

80% of customers prefer to speak with a representative at the weekends – Mobius Poll 2002

84% of customers are frustrated when a representative does not have immediate access to account information – Mobius Poll 2002

Customer who rate you 5 on a scale from 1 to 5 are six times more likely to buy from you again, as to if they ‘only’ gave you a score of 4.8. – TeleFaction data research

It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience – “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner

Customer experience should be a major consideration in any reputation management plan. Its direct connection to your bottom line demands it.

Erik & Jonathan Bernstein
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com