Consumers Give Second Chances to Poor Service Providers
Most consumers are forgiving and tolerant of a single poor customer service experience, according to findings of the American Express Global Customer Service Barometer.
According to the results of this 12-country study of more than 12,000 consumers, between 50% and 75% of consumers will put up with two or more poor customer service experiences before discontinuing business with a company. This ranges from a low of 49% in France to a remarkably high 77% in India.
Of course, those of us who have visited India are well aware of the infrastructure problems that often lead to bad customer service situations, so perhaps it is not so surprising that Indian consumers are more understanding and forgiving.
There is no doubt that consumers stop purchasing from companies that give them poor customer service. As we noted in yesterday’s blog post, up to 87% of consumers have vowed never to do business again with specific companies due to poor customer service experiences.
Over one-third of consumers in France (38%), Germany (33%), and the UK (33%) are unwilling to forgive even a single episode of poor customer service and are more prone to quit doing business with an organization after just one bad experience.
On the other hand, consumers in India (38%), Mexico (28%), Spain (24%) and Italy (22%) are more inclined to give companies three or more tries.
Significantly, 70% of consumers in this study claimed they will allow an organization a second chance after a poor customer service experience if they have generally had a history of good customer service from that company.
Consumers in Mexico (89%), Canada (88%), the U.S., Australia, and India (86% each) are significantly more likely to include prior service experiences in deciding whether to keep or drop their relationships with selling organizations.
This study confirms what we often tell our clients and workshop participants — creating a series of positive customer experiences is one of the best ways to ensure customer retention.
Read our most recent Monday Morning Marketing Memos for more thoughts on Customer Retention Marketing, or what I call the art of keeping good customers.
Tags: American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, customer expectations, Customer Retention, customer service experience, global customer service, Marketing, Monday Morning Marketing Memo, poor customer service, Understanding Customers
Customer Engagement, Customer Retention, Marketing | Steven Howard | 
July 28, 2010 12:02 am | 
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