The difference between good and bad customer service

It's no surprise to learn that consumers will ditch service providers over bad service nearly as much as they will on price. A Coldwell Banker® "Customer Service Study," prepared in conjunction with Harris Interactive, quantified customer dissatisfaction.

Nine out of 10 consumers surveyed declared that great customer service is "very or extremely" important in deciding whether to give a service provider repeat business. They change providers because of bad service (32%) nearly as often as they change businesses for lower prices (38%).

When asked to define the differences between great and bad service, consumers said the top characteristics of companies with "great service" were:

• Resolving questions and problems (66%)
• Knowledge of the product or service (49%)
• Being easy to reach (35%)
• Understanding requirements (35%)

Conversely, top characteristics associated with "bad service" were:

• Inability to resolve questions or problems (46%)
• Being unavailable/difficult to reach (38%)
• Needing to deal with multiple people/departments to resolve problems (37%)
• Lack of product knowledge (34%)
• Unprofessional demeanor (33%)

What say you? Comments? Ideas?

Eric Fraterman
eric@customerfocusconsult.com
http://www.customerfocusconsult.com/