A phrase from Bill Gates came to mind and to remove a little tension, almost risking my skin, I commented on it, because it seemed to me that it could alleviate the situation:
“Your dissatisfied customers are your greatest source of learning” Bill Gates
The manager looked at me between indignant and curious and asked me to explain… The explanation convinced him, they did not lose the client and it gave me the opportunity to write this post. I hope you find it interesting.
How customer service can create value and enhance your brand
Although a complaint from a client is always an embarrassing situation and is perceived as something negative, sometimes it is possible to turn the tables and turn into something good, what a priori was something that could ruin the reputation of a company. business.
In this graph that we already introduced in a previous post , you can see how it is possible, managing a customer complaint well, to overcome and even retain that initially dissatisfied customer.
In this graph we see customer loyalty on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis . The purple curve is the curve followed by a company that has not made any mistakes or has had no customer complaints.
The blue line is the line followed by a company that has had a customer complaint, but has managed it correctly. As we can see, customer loyalty is greater after some time in the company that has responded effectively, than the company that has never made a mistake.
But why does this happen?
Throughout the life of a company, its production process or its service, there are numerous points of interaction between the company and the customer. In a previous post , in which he talked about the Customer Journey Map , we saw with an example of a restaurant what those contact points were like and how they were located. In English, those points are called Touchpoints , in case you find it in some other text.
Contact points. How the client perceives your service
These contact points directly affect the user experience that the client has of our service and of course of our brand. But it is necessary that this measure, most of the time subjective, pass to a more objective level, either by drawing up a customer experience map or simply with a satisfaction survey .
The data collected can sometimes be interpreted in different ways. You already know how much I like metrics and that almost everything can be measured online, but for offline businesses, it is also possible.
Let’s see an example of how to measure customer satisfaction in a very simple way.
Imagine an online shoe store. The points of contact of the company with the client could be the following;
- The Web
- customer service
- The sales process
- product shipping
- The state in which the product arrives at the customer.
All these points are key in this process and we need to know how the customer’s experience has been in each of them.
For that, the simplest, a questionnaire to evaluate those 5 points. Imagine that at each point we obtain an average of:
- Point 1: 90% satisfaction
- Point 2: 85% satisfaction
- Point 3: 90% satisfaction
- Point 4: 85% satisfaction
- Point 5: 92% satisfaction
How do you think your service is? Good or bad?
At first glance it would seem that if approximately 9 out of 10 customers are happy at each point, the result is good, but… the reality is that these points should not be analyzed separately, but together, and for that, the operation is the Next:
0.9 x 0.85 x 0.9 x 0.85 x 0.92 = 0.54 = 54%
In other words , 54% of your customers are completely satisfied with your service … not much, right? And the other 56% have not been happy at any of those touchpoints.
In most online or offline businesses, not all customers who are not satisfied with the service generate a claim. Moreover, in the online environment, most users who are not happy simply leave the web without us knowing exactly why at first glance (performing an analysis with different tools, including Google Analytics , we can learn quite a few things)
Is it possible for a company to achieve 100% satisfaction at all points of contact with its customers?
The answer is no. It is not possible to achieve 100% satisfaction at least in real life. Another thing is that we have to work to achieve it, but reaching that value is almost almost impossible. That is why customer service is so important in our companies.
What is more expensive, resolving a customer complaint or losing it and getting a new one?
Sometimes companies that are faced with a customer complaint think short-term. They think that solving, replacing a defective product or paying an extra cost is just that, a cost that they should not bear. But the reality is that it is much cheaper in the long run, to assume an expense, to solve a problem for a client, than to lose it or the investment necessary to get a new one.
The power of word of mouth
An example of the above.
A veterinary center should strive to maintain and retain current customers, because nothing is as effective at gaining new customers as word of mouth. People who have pets establish a relationship of trust with the veterinarian. If that relationship is broken, it is difficult to rebuild it, but it is also difficult to build trust with a new client. Therefore, the focus must be on keeping current customers satisfied, who will be the prescribers of new customers.
If a veterinary center loses €20 today in a customer’s claim, but that customer leaves happy because they have solved his problem, what do you think he will do when he gets together with his friends who also have pets? Indeed, recommend your veterinarian.
For all these reasons, the claims of our customers are a great source of information and loyalty. In 99% of cases it is more beneficial in the long term to keep a loyal and happy customer than to lose it and have to generate a new one to replace it, unless the customer’s life cycle ( life time value ) is so short that not worth it. A typical case is restaurants for tourists. If you have noticed the customer service in this type of establishment, it usually leaves a lot to be desired, because they are much more concerned with attracting new customers than with keeping those who have already visited their establishment, who, as they are tourists and are passing through, The chances of them coming back are very low, even if everything has been perfect.
Have you ever contacted disastrous customer service? What image do you have of that company after they have sent you from department to department without solving your problem?
On the contrary, have you found a friendly customer service that has solved your question, however simple it was?
Surely you have interesting experiences to tell. Leave your comment and tell us what you think.