Customer service is a cornerstone of good business. Excellent customer service can make your company stand apart from the crowd, but bad customer service can have an equally large impact on business.
A few small mistakes can make you lose customers and earn a poor reputation that’s hard to recover from. But exactly how much will bad customer service hurt your business?
Bad Customer Service Means Higher Price Dissatisfaction
Exemplary customer service is one way your company can compete without offering lower prices than your competitors. Many shoppers excuse higher prices because they know they’re paying for a personal touch to their order.
Imagine a customer paying 20% more for a product and waiting 30 minutes on the phone to ask your support team about your return policy. The customer will get upset, wondering why they didn’t purchase the product at a lower price from a larger establishment. This may seem unordinary, but studies show a 20% dissatisfaction rate among customers who experienced one issue with customer service.
Shoppers Won’t Give You a Second Chance
Over half of all shoppers won’t contact your business’s customer service team if they have an issue. They might believe you can’t or won’t help them, based on previous customer service experiences or reviews of your company.
When you offer great customer service, your store will establish a good reputation. Your customers will know you can help them when they need it instead of holding in their complaints, only to never shop with you again.
In addition, your excellent customer service will persuade shoppers to return to your store despite any issues they encounter. They’ll know you’re there to help them, so they’ll be more willing to return to your shop in the future.
Poor Customer Service Spreads Among Shoppers
People are generally more likely to discuss something they’re displeased with than something which satisfied them – customer service is no exception.
For example, a friend of yours buys a shirt from a store. The shirt shrinks the first time they wash it, even though they followed the cleaning instructions. They reach out to the company who sold them the shirt, and the representative tells them it’s their fault the shirt shrunk and the store refuses to replace it. Your friend comes to you and tells you about the experience – are you likely to shop at the store?
This situation is very common among today’s shoppers, and it’s particularly damaging because of internet reviews. Many shoppers check a store’s reviews online before they make a purchase, and you can be sure customers will report their poor customer service experiences on review sites. Other customers will see this, and it will impact your bottom line.
To learn more about the statistics behind poor customer service, check out this infographic below:
Special thanks to our friends over at HelpScout for creating this fantastic infographic which was the inspiration to this article.
Has bad customer service impacted your business? What did you implement to improve? Let us know in the comments below!
