Consumers spurn company ‘churn and burn’

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by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Page 2 of 2 Finance companies – the very companies getting sucked into a vortex of bad karma over their dodgy conduct with sub-prime mortgages, poor lending practices and high fees took the bronze medal with 46% of unhappy customers. Related stories Review: Too Human Broadcom backs 60GHz ultra broadband networking group Fixed wireless focus boosts BigAir Optus: Telstra “threatened” by our rapid network expansion Should you fly the capped mobile broadband skies with iPrimus? The travel and hospitality industry had 31% of dissatisfied customers, online retail had 30% and the insurance and utilities industries had 28% of unhappy customers – the best of a bad, bad bunch when it comes to customer service and its redefinition into customer disservice. A whopping 65% of participants said they’d “stopped doing business with a telecommunications provider due to poor customer service”, while 44% believed – or probably couldn’t believe – that “their provider hadn't realised they were no longer a customer”. RightNow says that “other industries also have issues”, too. The travel and hospitality industry appears to “suffer from customer visibility problems” with 78% of participants in the belief that “once they'd boycotted a company in this sector, the company was unaware of the lost business”. Apparently, this stunning lack of insight “may account for the massive 90% of travel and hospitality companies that did not attempt to win customers back”. Brett Waters, Vice President Asia Pacific South of RightNow said what should be obvious and “business 101” when he exclaimed that: "Today, the success of every business depends on good customer experiences.” Waters continued that: “Consumers are much more attuned to what is, and what isn't, acceptable behaviour when they interact with organisations and are increasingly prepared to remove their business because of poor experiences. Companies need to wise-up to the correlation between poor customer experiences and churn – if you can't make it easy and satisfying for people to do business with you, you'll lose them to someone who does – and quickly." Consumer participants were also quick to share their grievances and frustrations with the online shopping industry, saying they wanted “transparency” about delivery charges before having their hearts temporarily stop when they saw what delivery would cost at the “check out”. And is it any surprise that participants wanted to know simple stuff like “better information about products” and another no-brainer in wanting to be able to “ask questions during the purchasing process”. Of course, it’s no surprise, given that RightNow sells customer relationship management software, that RightNow reminds us that “all of these areas of frustration are solvable with technology readily available today”. Still, there was one bright spot in the entire survey, and funnily enough, it will put a smile on the dial of the dental profession! Apparently nearly 33% of Australians would “rather go to the dentist for a tooth extraction than suffer a poor customer experience!” Far out. Companies, please, stop being so brain dead and remember, the customer is king. Treat them right, and you’ll not only rarely lose customers, but they’ll love and champion you, not secretly wish your entire organisation burned at the stake. Ignore this report at your peril, companies of the world. We, your customers, are sick to death of poor customer service. Ye have been warned! Please enable JavaScript in your browser to post your comment! Tags See All Tags Alex ZaharovReutt  Australia  Consumers  Dentistry  Research  Retail  Services  etailing  Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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