Why it's important to keep customers happy
Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 04:39PM I was perusing the current issue of Time Magazine and ran across an interesting book review by Andrea Sachs.
The title of the book immediately caught my attention: Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000. The author is Pete Blackshaw, an executive an Nielson online.
The author's basic tenet is that poor customer service -- thanks to social networking sites like Facebook, microblogging like Twitter, and of course the ubiquitous Youtube -- can travel the globe in seconds, and that the resulting chatter can dramatically shape the publics' perception of a brand.
Look no further than the infamous video of the Comcast technician falling asleep while on a customer service call as proof-positive of this theory. There's dozens and dozens of examples of how poor customer service has traveled like wild-fire across the internet.
Of course, the underlying assumption -- and correctly so -- is that angry consumers are much more motivated to spread their discontent than cheery ones their satisfaction.
Sachs concludes her review by stating "This book deserves a spot on the desk of every executive who worries about his company's reputational risk."
Reader Comments (2)
I just saw this in action the other day... My friend was upset over a laundromat ruining his clothes, and he not only made his disdain for the company obvious on his facebook status, but created a 'posted note' (where he tagged dozens of people) calling for action- i.e. boycotting the company. lol.
While the most unhappy customers are often loud, the most happen customers are often loud too. Companies have to pay more attention to the extremes, which is where the online WOM comes from. To focus on the bad and not also focus on the good is a mistake, especially in the long run.