Top two reasons why customers leave

Sooner or later, some of your customers will leave and buy products from your competitors.

Why?

A survey made by the Rockefeller Corporation of Pittsburgh revealed the following facts on why customers stop buying from their regular suppliers:

1% die
3% move away
5% formed other relationships

And here are the top 2 reasons:

14% leave due to product dissatisfaction
68% stop buying because of an attitude of indifference toward the customer by one or more persons representing the supplier!

HOW TO LOVE COMPLAINING CUSTOMERS

What? LOVE complaining customers???

YES!

If they didn’t complain to you, you may never find out there was a problem!

Did you know: up to 90% of dissatisfied customers will not buy from you again and THEY WON’T TELL YOU WHY! These are statistics from a "Consumer Reports" survey.

According to Consumer Reports:

Dissatisfied customers tell an average of 10 other people about their BAD experience; 12 % tell up to 20 people.

Satisfied customers will tell an average of five other people about their good experience with your company.

It costs five times more money to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one!

If 20 customers are dissatisfied, 19 won’t tell you.
14 of the 20 will take their business elsewhere.

And here is that scary statistic again:

Up to 90% of dissatisfied customers will not buy from you again and THEY WON’T TELL YOU WHY!

So your customers who complain to you are doing you a BIG favor. By taking the time and trouble to tell you about a problem, they are giving you the opportunity to improve on a product or service to earn their business back.

This will also help you to grow your business. The complaining customer is also helping you by alerting you to a problem that may be costing you business from other customers or prospects.

GETTING CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

Because many customers will not actively complain to you if there is a problem, here are two ways to find out if any of your customers have grievances they may not have wanted to share with you.

1. Develop a customer satisfaction form. Include it with products you ship and with invoices you mail.

2. At the end of a conversation with a good customer, ask this question: "In what ways could we change or improve our products or services to make it more convenient for you to order from us?"

AFFECTING YOUR BOTTOM LINE

At first this may be uncomfortable because you could hear comments or complaints that may be surprising and disappointing. But after you begin to improve upon your products and services, you will see the effect on your bottom line and you’ll be glad you asked for customer feedback!

MAKE IT EASY FOR CUSTOMERS TO ORDER from YOU!

Be sure to include a label or sticker on the outside of boxes of products you ship to customers. The label should include (in easy-to-read print):

Your company name
Your company’s phone number with extension # to reach the right person

Why is this important?

If one of your customer’s new employees suddenly needs to order and isn’t sure who to call YOUR name and telephone number will be on the box, making it easy for the employee to order.

If your name and phone number are NOT attached to the product container, the employee may turn to other sources to re-order the product.

About the Author

Reprinted with permission
(Copyright, 2000, Ann Barrs Selling Supplies.com) Reprint permission granted in part or whole when the following credit appears "Reprinted with permission from Ann Barrs Selling Supplies.com Weekly E-Mail Sales Tips. To subscribe free, E-mail to: annbarr@sellingsupplies.com with "subscribe" in the subject line."




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