The reason I told you the story yesterday, is not because I’m grumpy and wanted to whine, and certainly not because I wanted to make the company look bad (note that I didn’t even name the company).  The reason I shared this story is because it could happen to you …not as the consumer, but as the seller who’s losing business.

In fact, I can say without doubt that if you’ve been in business for any amount of time, there’s a good number of people who didn’t do business with you because something about your customer service turned them off.

Consider this: according to Dan Kennedy, 68% of customers leave a business because of customer service issues.  Sixty eight percent!

And yet most businesses focus on the smaller numbers, like the 9% that leave because a competitor is making a better offer.  They put on their boxing gloves and start duking it out with competitors, getting into all sorts of ridiculous price and bonus wars …

And for what?  To try to cling desperately to 9% of their customers who are contemplating leaving because they saw a better offer?

Sure, your marketing plan should take into consideration your competitors.  But you also need to turn an eye to your customers – maybe up to 68% of those considering leaving – who may be considering jumping ship simply because you’re neglecting or ignoring them.

It really is that simple: treat your customers like gold consistently, and you’ll have a better shot at keeping them as a lifelong loyal customer.  That means customer service should be your number one priority – because without those customers, you’re just a seller who has a product without a business or an income.

Tomorrow. we’ll look at some ways to put a little spit and polish on your customer service system…

Tags: Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, HelpDesk, Losing Customers, Losing Sales

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 12:58 and is filed under Customer Service, Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.