This sponsored post is produced in association with Freshdesk.
If you’re starting a new business or improving an existing one, there’s no shortage of outlets offering helpful advice.
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What’s missing in all of this how-to assistance is help for something that can sabotage your business faster than the time it takes to do a web search. It’s what’s needed to ensure exemplary customer service, and at a time when a lot of businesses heavily concentrate on making the sale, there are countless that don’t pay enough attention to cultivating a customer base that’s durable and loyal.
Customer service is more than fixing something that’s broken or educating your customers on how to use the product. It’s establishing a solid community through social media and being responsive to customers; gathering valuable feedback to help you discover trouble spots in your business to take quick, decisive action when a problem occurs; and improving your processes or other aspects of your business, such as what features of your product are important to your customer base…and which aren’t.
A good customer-service foundation also unifies your staff behind a consistent message, and provides customers with a rich knowledge base, so they can seek advice for problems and concerns while minimizing the need for interaction with live help staff.
If you’re still skeptical about the importance of a robust customer-service layer, here are some statistics that might jog your thinking.
1. Frustrated visitors don’t become customers
It’s not hard to come to this conclusion on your own, but it may only become evident after you realize that your company has frustrated visitors — and then it may be too late. To back this up with stats, a Forrester Research study determined that 45 percent of U.S. online adults will abandon their online purchase if they can’t find a quick answer to their question.
2. Frustrated customers become other companies’ customers
This is also pretty simple to understand: If the customer that comes to your company with a problem can’t find a solution (even if one exists in your product line), they aren’t likely to stick around waiting for you to satisfy their needs. No, they’ll leave you still seeking a solution, so your miss becomes someone else’s sale. Polling by RightNow and Harris Interactive determined that 89 percent of consumers who have a poor customer experience will begin doing business with or purchase from a competitor.
3. Frustrated customers don’t want to become other companies’ customers
The customer came to you for some reason — a friend’s recommendation, good reviews from previous customers, an established brand, etc.—so try not to let them down. But if you do…well, everyone makes mistakes, so some customers will stick with you and give you more than one chance.
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Just don’t put too much of a strain on that loyalty or you’ll risk losing them. An Accenture study found that more people will consider switching providers due to poor customer service (53 percent in 2014 compared to 46 percent in 2012), but 80 percent of switches due to poor service would have been avoided by a better service resolution.
4. More customers talk about bad service
It’s natural that someone who’s been let down by a company is more likely to talk about it than someone who sailed through a customer experience without a problem. “Bad news travels fast” is an old, reliable saying, but in the age of social media, “fast” can be measured in minutes and hours rather than days and weeks. An American Express/Ebitquity survey found that 60 percent of consumers who had a poor customer-service experience told others about it, while 46 percent of those who had a good customer-service experience shared the news with others.
5. Customers talk more about bad service
The same American Express/Ebitquity poll found that someone who had a good customer-service experience told on average eight people about it, but those surveyed said that, when they had a bad customer-service experience, they told on average 21 other people. Remember that old proverb, often attributed to P.T. Barnum, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”? Yeah, that’s probably not particularly good advice here…
6. Happy customers spend more
It’s said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” which has been somewhat modernized as “Don’t mess with a good thing.” Consumers seem to follow that reasoning with their purchases, as the previously referenced American Express/Ebitquity report indicates that 74 percent of consumers say they have spent more with a company because of a history of positive customer service experiences; while 68 percent of consumers state that they are willing to spend more with a company they believe provides excellent customer service. Keep your good customers satisfied, and you’ll get rewarded.
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7. No, really…happy customers spend more, maybe a lot more
And those rewards may be compounded. According to Bain & Co. research, a company that improves its customer-retention rates by as little as 5 percent may see increased profits that are 25 percent to 95 percent higher. Therefore, it’s not only good to have a loyal customer base, but when they return, they seem likely to be more lucrative for you. Win-win situation.
All these stats add up to a sobering truth: many companies treat their customers as no more than a number. Without investing adequate customer-service budget to help you develop vibrant, valuable relationships with your customer base – that make your customers feel like they matter as individuals — you may just become an enduring source of their problem rather than the solution. And we all know where that leads.
Dig deeper: Read more at FreshDesk about turning customer issues into successes.
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