Workforce Management Featured Article
The Cost of Poor Customer Satisfaction
Most companies today strive to offer excellence in customer service. They may have it on a goals list, and they may discuss the idea at every meeting. Where many companies fail, however, is in the implementation side. Their operation may be too troubled with disinterested, poorly trained agents, or their infrastructure may not be able to accommodate multichannel customer support. Their databases may be old or unavailable. Agents may be scripted too rigorously and are unable to use their initiative to solve real problems. Whatever the reason, true customer satisfaction is out of reach for many companies.
A recent infographic published by SurveyCrest identified some of the most disconcerting facts about customer satisfaction rates in the U.S. and may help yield some insight into where many organizations go wrong in the pursuit of improved customer loyalty.
Outdated technology. According to the survey, 42 percent of customer service reps fail to offer an excellent customer experience because they are quite simply unable to: they are using outdated and disconnected technologies.
Not fast enough. The survey found that 45 percent of online consumers in the U.S. cancel their transactions before processing them if their customer inquiries are not resolved in a timely manner.
Poor service causes switching. An overwhelming number of customers – 89 percent – will switch to a competitor if they receive a poor customer support experience. This has serious implications for customer loyalty today.
Negative social media posts. Social media is here to stay, and customers are using it to air their opinions on their transactions. In fact, customers are twice as likely to post about a negative experience as a positive one, which means companies need to double down on their efforts to improve customer satisfaction.
It’s hard work to undo bad service. The study found that when a customer receives a bad customer support experience, it takes an average of 12 good experiences to “erase” the poor experience from the customer’s mind.
It’s an often-repeated fact that it costs far more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one happy. According to the survey, it costs six to seven times more to attract a new customer than properly service an existing customer. Whether it’s a matter of new technology and processes or better training for agents, more effective customer service belongs on the top of every organization’s to-do list. For most companies, not offering a high quality customer support experience is something they simply cannot afford.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi