If you’ve been following my past blogs, you have probably noticed a common theme. Customer service. You might not always think about the service you are providing, but I’m sure you’re always thinking about the service you are receiving. As consumers, we are critical. Think about experiences that you have received. How likely are you to go online and share your good experiences? What about the mediocre experiences? Not likely. But if you have one bad experience somewhere… I’m sure you’re more likely to write a review, talk about it on social media and/or tell your friends. We are two times more likely to share bad experiences than we are to talk about the good ones. Bad experiences spread like wildfire. After one negative experience, 51% of customers will never do business with that company again. That’s why it’s so important that we are always focused on giving great service.
Consumers value exceptional service
When providing service, if we make a mistake, people are more willing to forgive us if the service we provide is excellent. Again, think about yourself as the consumer. You’ve been working with an organization for a long time and they continue to provide over the top service. A critical mistake is made, and the organization recognizes the error and bends over backwards to fix it. They own it, resolve it and ensure that you are satisfied with the result. They communicate well and consistently follow-up with you. Would you immediately write them off? Would you give them another chance, recognizing that they have a great relationship with you, historically did a really good job and when the problem arose, they solved it well? I’d be willing to bet that you would give them another opportunity.
On the flip side, you’ve been working with an organization for a long time and the experiences have just been mediocre at best. Would you continue working with them if a mistake was made and they didn’t take ownership, didn’t communicate well and they didn’t show genuine care? Probably not. As a matter of fact, more than half of Americans have scrapped a purchase or transaction because of bad service.
Service and the bottom line
People are willing to spend more money for excellent customer service. 7 out of 10 U.S. consumers say they’ve spent more money to do business with a company that delivers great service. That speaks volumes. As I’ve been traveling around the US (and London) providing customer service training to a variety of roles in several organizations, one thing remains constant. You must have the spirit to serve. You must want to genuinely provide the best service possible to your customers and to anyone that you work with. Internal customers/clients are just as important as external customers/clients. If everyone had a service minded mentality, we would butt heads less. We would spend more time finding a solution rather than being part of the problem. We would work better together. Think about this statistic… U.S. companies lose more than $62 billion annually due to poor customer service. Imagine if companies could generate more than $62 billion annually as a result of good customer service. Would that entice you to be more aware of your customer service skills?
Think about these statistics as you go about your work day. If you dismiss them thinking that you don’t provide service to customers/clients, you’re wrong. Remember, your customers/clients are those you interact with most. Maybe it’s a secretary, flight attendant, IT professional, professor. Just because you don’t necessarily interface with the end-client, doesn’t mean you don’t contribute to the overall success.
Do you have any customer service statistics to share? I’d love to hear from you. Send me a note at jennaf@idebamarketing.com.
– Jenna Fuchs, Director of Consulting
