Customer Retention: The forgotten domain? Part – I

By | May 5, 2014

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As organizations chase new ways of wooing new customers to improve their bottom lines, are we missing out on a surefire way of boosting profit margins: Customer Retention?
Companies might be happily adopting the policy of ‘acquire and forget’ but if you look at the situation from the customer’s point of view, it looks very grim. What’s more, almost 80% companies think that the quality of service they provide is outstanding (though only 8% of their customers agree).
Here are a few facts that would familiarize you with the grim reality of customer service practices (Source : Shankman Honig).

  • 20% customers left a regular service provider due to poor customer service in 2012.
  • 55% backed out of a transaction or purchase due to poor service experience.
  • 35% lost their temper with the customer service rep in 2012.
  • 24% of those who lost their temper used social media to talk about their experience with the company.
  • On an average a customer tells 15 people about their good experiences but tells 24 people about bad experiences.
  • $83 billion estimated annual loss to U.S. businesses due to poor customer service.
  • $289 is the average amount a customer would have spent with a business if only they hadn’t left due to bad service.

So why do customers get dissatisfied?
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A customer would appreciate some sincerity on the organization’s part in solving his problems. But organizations do just the opposite. Here are a few reasons of why customers get fed-up of the services offered and ultimately leave.

  • Deception: 78% of customers claim they would leave a service provider if a service delivered is different from what is implied.
  • Rudeness: 77% of customers claim they would leave a service provider if they have to deal with unfriendly or impolite customer service agents.
  • Incompetency: 73% of customers claim they would leave a service provider if they have to contact customer service multiple times for the same reason.
  • Lateness: 65% of customers claim they would leave a service provider if they are being left on hold for a long time.

We have taken a look at where companies go wrong in this post. In the next post, we will continue with this series and look at how the situation can be averted.