Do your customers love you? (Perception is not reality)
Do you know what your customers are really saying about you? Most companies, it seems, don’t. When Bain & Company surveyed 362 companies a few years ago, 80 percent of the surveyed companies declared they were delivering a “superior experience” to their customers. But when Bain asked the customers themselves, only 8 percent agreed. That’s a huge, gaping 72 point gap!
What’s more, the average U.S. business loses up to half of its customers every five years. In a typical company, customers are defecting at the rate of 10-30% per year, says Frederick Reichheld, famous for his study of customer loyalty that came to be known as the Net Promoter Score. In contrast, it’s estimated that the best, most profitable companies lose less than 10% of their customers every five years.
Assuming you know what your customers are thinking can be hazardous to your company’s health.
One of the smartest things you can do is to give your customers a chance to provide you with honest, unvarnished feedback, at least once a year. A simple satisfaction survey using a free, web-based survey tool like SurveyMonkey can have you reaching out to your customers in hours, and the insight you get in return can be used to: a) enhance your business model/practices; b) retain your customers and increase your share of their business, and; c) sharpen your marketing strategy so you can more effectively attract new customers. I nominate this to go right to the top of your to-do list.
About Drew Williams
My name is Drew Williams. I’m an author and marketing entrepreneur. “A what?”, you say. I call someone who’s passionate about building businesses a marketing entrepreneur. So that’s me. Full Profile | Google+
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