It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a bad customer experience is shared more widely than a good one. A survey by the Temkin Group of 10,000 customers about their recent interactions with 300 companies in 20 industries confirmed this belief.
Whether your customers have a great experience or a bad one, customers are more likely to share it directly with the company rather than running immediately to Facebook or Twitter. That’s good news for small businesses. It gives you the opportunity to correct a grievance before it’s spread across social media.
Yet there are still a significant number of customers who will also post on social media, especially if it’s negative.
It’s also not surprising that poor customer experiences are costly in terms of immediate and future sales growth. TV and internet service providers along with insurance companies deliver bad experiences most frequently. They also stand to lose the most revenues, about 6.4%, as a direct result of poor customer experience.
One bright spot for your marketing efforts is that word-of-mouth is still a valuable channel. 44% of customers will tell friends about a good experience.
The bottom line?
Never stop improving your customer’s experience with your business. Use customer service automation to respond fast. Customers expect it.
Put good business processes in place for welcoming new customers. Ensure that your processes include details on how to handle all possible customer grievances.
Reduce the possibilities for negative customer service and increase the chances for positives, every step of the way.