80% of customers say they are ’satisfied’ with existing suppliers or brands at the very moment they switch to a new one.

So often we hear talk of ‘customer satisfaction’, but we all know, as customers, that when we’re ‘merely satisfied’, we are likely to look out for other providers of those goods or services: either consciously or unconsciously.

In fact, recent research from Coca Cola found that 80% of customers say they are ’satisfied’ with existing suppliers or brands at the very moment they switch to a new one!

We know this is true from personal experience: if we go out for a meal, and come away ’satisfied’ (rather than ‘delighted’), we’re going to try somewhere else next time.

Some other fascinating customer service excellence conundrums include that:

    * It costs at least 6 times as much to win new customers as it does to retain and delight existing ones (so it’s worth a bit of investment in time and money).

    * People tell everyone they can about poor customer service, but only 1 or 2 about great customer service (so you have to be ‘great’ MUCH more than you’re ‘poor’!)

    * Investment in service excellence pays a great dividend: the greatest advertising in the world, in any business, is word of mouth (just ask Google).

    * Research suggests that a 1% increase in customer loyalty can have as much benefit to your business as a 10% reduction in costs.

So the only way to long term business and organisational success is to have your stakeholders, your mission, your strategy, your processes, and your systems all aligned around the delivery of outstanding customer service as the norm. If you don’t, it simply won’t work, because somewhere, whether you know about it or not, there’ll be a spanner in the works.

Measuring the Results

When you’ve done this, you need to measure the results (and we don’t mean the money, we mean the results of the actions that, if done right, will result in the money following!).

This sounds easy, but, if it was it would be happening everywhere, and, as customers, we know it’s not.

We’re here to help you. In the same way that you wouldn’t try and do your accounts without an accountant, or handle a legal case without a lawyer, getting the right professional help can work wonders – and may save you from ending up with merely ’satisfied’ customers.

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