in Small Business
Issue No. 5 - April/June 2002
Complaining Customers are a Bonus to Your Business
by John Hurley
Recent consumer research tells us that only 5 to 9 per cent of people who are dissatisfied with a service or product let businesses know of their dissatisfaction. That is, for every 20 dissatisfied customers, only one will say something about it. The majority of people just never come back, taking their business elsewhere or continuing to do business until they find a suitable alternative. When this occurs, you do not learn why they were dissatisfied or how you can do things better.
Complaining customers are highly valuable because they give your business a second chance to please them and you gain vital information on how to improve your business.
In addition to complaints, there are other, friendlier ways to engage customers in the process of helping you improve your business. You will find that customers are keen to help when we make it easy for them to talk to us, acknowledge their contribution and respond to their input. Reward Marketing can give you a variety of ways for customers to continually give you great information.
The research also reveals the prime reasons why customers quit supporting a business:
- 3 per cent move away;
- 5 per cent develop other friendships;
- 9 per cent leave for competitive reasons;
- 14 per cent are dissatisfied with theproduct; and
- 68 per cent quit because of an attitudeof indifference with staff.
This tells us we can retain at least 70 per cent of the customers we attract to our business by de...
