TABLE OF CONTENTS What's in This Chapter?
Costs of losing customers
Customer expectations
Other factors affecting customer relations
This chapter gives you some additional information about the importance of good customer service. You can use this material in discussion or in creating your own activities.
The statistics in the first chapter of this workbook indicated how expensive it is to lose customers. Those statistics came from Technical Assistance Research Programs and the Forum Corporation.
More recent ongoing research by TARP confirms the findings of the original consumer affairs study, although statistics vary by industry. Here are some further statistics from TARP's John Goodman (1999):
On average, across all industries, 50 per cent of consumers' complaints are presented to a frontline person. In retail and distributor industries, the chances are high that a problem will never be reported to the manufacturer or head office.
Only 1 5 per cent of customers bring their complaints to a manager or head office.
For low cost/value items, only 4 20 per cent of customers complain to a frontline staff member. Ninety-six per cent of those customers do not complain beyond the front line.
For large value items, the complaint rate is higher: up to 50 per cent complain to frontline personnel and 5 10 per cent take complaints to a higher level.
If a complaint is resolved quickly, or on the first contact, there is 10 per cent higher satisfaction and loyalty than if a consumer has to go through many contacts for...
