Heard of these before ?

As I do, I am sure that you browse the web and social medias, and you see tons of statistics, quotes or facts that are connected with sales or customer service. I thought of making a series of articles which would include some that are important to me particularly. There are some that we use in our trainings and others which are part of our everyday approach.

80% of CEOs surveyed believed their companies delivered exceptional customer service, yet only 8% of their customers agreed !

How many employees have the same impression as their CEO ? It is rather difficult for managers to mobilize their teams so they can deliver the message which was sent to them. Nevertheless, some succeeded well in this domain! One of the ways to achieve this is to use a constant, clear communication and to make adjustments from time to time.

An ongoing, personalized training program, which measures experiences, will help increase your customer’s favourable perception. Alone, an internal awareness campaign will not be enough for the staff to well understand (and realize) the impact of good service.

68% of customers who stop dealing with a service provider is because of an employee’s attitude of indifference.

How many times did you feel that you were "disturbing" the employee who is there to serve you? It is not easy to get to the point where all the members of a team are client centered. Also, as a customer, you have your own interpretation
of what indifference is. In a way, it goes in the same direction as the previous statistic. If employees do not care about customers with whom they interact every day, who will? The managers cannot always be present but can make adjustments if they have the tools that will allow them to know their customers opinions.

In a week, between 20 and 30 people will know the experience of a dissatisfied customer.

We can not escape this: there will be dissatisfied customers even if we have an excellent customer service. Customer surveys, newsgroups and others will give you the important information for that purpose. Afterward, it is imperative to bring corrective measures to your operations to reduce this number. Always think about surveying your customers to know what makes them dissatisfied,then make the adjustments.

For every customer complaint, there are 26 customers who have remained silent.

In January, we spoke to you about managing complaints. I bring again this statistic which I find rather strong. Do the math; this means that 96% of people will not tell you about their experience unless you ask. What triggers their dissatisfaction and why don’t they say anything? Solution : ask and listen.

Today, satisfied customers tell 3 friends, angry customers tell 3,000. It is a good thing to know about your business but to learn it through social medias is rather reactive. Certainly, there are many ways to manage these comments but to be proactive will reduce the number of dissatisfied people. Just act when the client is in front of you!

Attracting a new customer costs 5 times as much as keeping an existing one.

Do you really want to always start over again? A customer who says to be loyal to a company will not visit somewhere else and will turn to you to find solutions. Furthermore, he will be inclined "to accept" service breach becausehe knows what you are capable of.To develop a faithful clientele is not a project that can be done overnight. It involves a lot of work, listening, discipline, but also the desire to see our company perform better. You know, showing appreciation to your clients isworth much more than a discount or a preferential rate. Consider the person before concentrating on the buyer; thats a long-term vision!

I hope that some of these ideas will inspire you and motivate you to evaluate the level of service offered to your customers.

Francis Prézeau
Owner/President
f.prezeau@signaturecanada.ca
Phone: 514-923- 8155
signaturecanada.ca