This is written by Lester Lewis, business coach

CUSTOMER SERVICE – THE EXTRA 1%

I went to a restaurant with a client recently for a spot of lunch.  When asked for my drinks order, I requested a Bundaberg Ginger Beer – to support a local icon, and it tastes so good, particularly on a hot day.  To my surprise, the response was – “we haven’t any left, sorry” and then there was this lengthy pause. … the waitress was waiting for me to make another selection.  On this occasion, I did – and got my drink. Now the point of this – part of excellence in customer service is to ensure that the client or patron or customer is actually satisfied. I felt dis-satisfied because the waitress did not make the effort to meet my needs, and almost missed a sale opportunity or an opportunity to up-sell.

Let me share some statistics on reasons a customer will leave a business:

• 1% die
• 3% move
• 5% develop other friendships/habits
• 9% go to a competitor and don’t return
• 14% are dissatisfied with the product or price
• 68% changed companies because of poor service and the perceived indifference of staff and management

Here is something to think about – only 4% of dis-satisfied customers complain – 96% just go away quietly, and 91% never return.  It is said that a dis-satisfied customer tells 8 to 10 people – and 1 in 5 tell more than 20 people. I wonder if that figure is now much larger with the recent advent of Facebook, Twitter and emails?

It takes up to 12 positive service incidents to make up for 1 negative incident, however 7 out of 10 complaining customers will do business again if the problem is solved in their favour.  If resolved immediately, 95% will do business with you again.

We seem to spend a lot of money trying to attract new customers and sometimes neglect our existing customer base.  The facts are quite simple, it costs us 10 times as much to attract new clients compared to maintaining a relationship with our existing clients, and customer loyalty is worth 10 times the value of a single purchase.