I felt like titling this article “The Good Guys Win.” The Good Guys win because there is empirical evidence from a recent study that ties outstanding customer service to increased revenue. Really… being a good corporate citizen pays.
It turns out that Excellent Customer Service pays dividends — according to recent research sponsored by American Express, a majority of customers report spending 9% more with companies that provide excellent customer service. AMX recently published findings from its Global Customer Service Barometer research and there is great news here for businesses.
In this economy, you’d have to work awfully hard to increase customer spending at any level, let alone 9%. If you do business globally and serve India and Japan, the news is even better — 11% and 10% increases respectively.
American Express Global Service Barometer
Moreover, a majority are reporting that this matters more to them in our current down economic climate — just when you might think that the price would rule.
Good News for Online Competition?
While not specifically geared toward online buying — there are two additional insights that may help companies that compete online to gain a competitive advantage:
- Mind the Gap
- Online Blowback
The study reports a significant gap between the willingness on respondents’ part to spend more and the numbers of companies they believe deliver on that level of excellent customer service.
Additionally, repeat business — aka The Holy Grail of Business — goes through the roof when you provide outstanding customer service. 81% report giving a company repeat business when they have provided good customer service, whereas 52% say they will never do business with them again after a bad customer experience.
Minding the competitive gap between those that deliver outstanding customer service and those that fall short and scooping up the spoils while competitors are asleep at the switch (one of my Dad’s favorite expressions) seems like a winning strategy.
48% of the survey respondents’ reported “always” or “often” using online review site postings or opinions in blogs to get information about a company’s customer service. Great, you say. Except here’s the Online Blowback — they believe negative reviews more than the positive ones.
Once again, monitoring and managing online reputations matter to your bottom line. Negatives mattering more than positives (particularly when it seems as though just about any crackpot can then do damage) is a tough nut to deal with yet it is always better to know the impact and work from a position of knowledge.
So, being one of the Good Guys that simply believe Excellent Customer Service is the Right Thing to Do just got a little better, didn’t it?
