According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 50% of businesses fail within five years of opening; fewer still make it to their 10th anniversary. So a company with legs surely must doing many things right, right? Not necessarily. Even if you’re providing a great product or service, the most important requisite to success lies in the customer experience. If customers feel ignored by your support team after having a bad experience with a product or service, they’ll shift for a better experience elsewhere.
Even for brands at the top of the chart in customer satisfaction, there’s no resting on laurels. Exhibit A: I booked a trip last spring with a well-known and respected cruise ship often voted best in the world. I didn’t feel the need for due diligence because this aspirational brand was known to me and I was beyond excited to become a loyal, repeat customer. While the brand itself delivered on its promise, the companies it contracted with were hellish to deal with and that tarnished the entire experience. Once I started reading the customer feedback (hundreds of similar nightmarish tales from other clients) I realized that the brand’s rep had lost a lot of its luster and their customer service, after the fact, did nothing to ensure I’d be a repeat cruiser. Long story short, this brand lost a customer they would have had for life.
So what is the cost of losing customers? Acquiring new customers costs five times more than retaining existing customers. Every business knows the value of keeping customers. Yet despite companies’ best efforts customers still leave and the reason often feels like a mystery. No mystery in my case.
................................
There are many reasons companies lose customers: the most common include a poor product, price increases, lousy customer service, and changes in market conditions. And once lost, there’s little hope of return.
................................
I sent letters (snail mail, not even email) to the top brass at the cruise ship line just to let them know what transpired. No response. I have logs of dozens of calls and emails to various customer service reps and supervisors over a seven month period. Little response. There was no effort to keep me as a customer.
By far the biggest reason customers move on (almost 75%) is because they experience a problem that wasn’t effectively handled. Look, we all know stuff happens. It’s how we handle the stuff that happens that says everything about us. Many companies place a huge focus on fixing problems they hear about from their customers. I’d like to think that if there was a cruise ship rep reading the message boards –with the same complaints detailed ad infinitum – they’d be fixing the problems. But no.
Many businesses believe they’re providing excellent customer service when they actually aren’t. It’s important that companies regularly seek feedback from clients. That’s never been easier in this digital age. Ongoing customer dialog, brief, anonymous surveys, and secret shopper reports can reveal important opportunities for improvement. As for me, a devoted, true blue consumer, this company lost any chance of generating consistent revenue from me. At least I got an editorial out of it.