Why customers won't tell you when things are bad...
Have you heard the one about the unhappy customer who actually told you that they had just received a poor customer service experience and typically told you at a barbeque or social event where there were plenty of people listening?
Truth is most unhappy customers don't bother to complain; they just leave the store and never come back. Meanwhile, store management and staff continue on their merry way believing they are giving good customer experience whilst, their unhappy customer is telling everyone a different story.
There is plenty of research and evidence to support the view that most customer dissatisfaction is covert with a recent study by U.S based Forrester Research's Marketing finding that while 80% of companies reported providing a superior customer experience, only 8% of consumers who were asked the same question said they had received a superior experience. So there is certainly some inconsistency in the experience gap between what retailers perceive is their “high “service level and what actually happens in the hearts and minds of their customers..
Another study, this one conducted by the U.S.based Research and National In-Store, found over 16% of consumers said they would stop visiting a store all together as a result of a bad customer experience. with two-thirds indicating that sales staff are very important to their level of customer satisfaction.
Here are a few of the Doctor’s tips to tell if a customer is unhappy without the customer actually saying it.
1. They state their complaint in the form of a question.
This is a classic “I’m not happy” moment and a trained and alert staff member will pick this up every time. Now this moment of truth can easily be turned around to deliver a positive customer experience through skillfully drawing out the reasons for the question and responding positively.
2. They abruptly stop shopping and leave the store.
It could simply be that they are in a hurry, although in the past I have actually and diplomatically asked a customer why they left in such a hurry and on occasion found out that they were in fact upset at the treatment they received.
Let's not race out to every customer that leaves the store, rather stay alert to the “unusual” walk outs.
We spend so much time and money attracting people to our business that winning a customer back is a far less costly exercise.
3. The "I changed my mind" product returns; A lot of customers do simply change their mind about a purchase but that still doesn't mean they aren't disappointed or unhappy about it. As we know, most customers won't complain about a product return that they make and more often that not we don’t ask them why they returned the item. By politely asking one or two follow-up questions you’re likely to uncover either the real reason for the return, or at the very least how the customer really feels about the product.
Have you heard the one about the unhappy customer who actually told you that they had just received a poor customer service experience and typically told you at a barbeque or social event where there were plenty of people listening?