A recent survey of 5,000 consumers confirms that customers may abandon a company following a bad experience, but they are less likely to abandon a retailer or Internet service provider, according to Temkin Group in the report titled: What Happens After A Good Or Bad Experience? And good news for one retail segment: consumers report the fewest bad experiences with grocery chains.
Some specific companies that others can learn from, experiencing the fewest bad experiences include: Whole Foods, ING Direct and Holiday Inn. Some of the companies with the record of worst number of bad experiences include: Gap, QVC, eBay and Best Buy.
Companies should beware that their customers are much more likely to share bad experiences than good experiences quickly via a variety of channels:
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- 62% told friends about the bad experience via email, phone or in-person;
- 38% sent feedback directly to the company via a call, letter, email or on the web site;
- 23% wrote about it on Facebook;
- 14% posted a comment or rating on a third-party site such as Yelp or TripAdvisor; and
- 9% mentioned it on Twitter.
There is hope, however, for companies that respond quickly and effectively following a bad experience. When companies had a very good response to a bad experience, less than one out of five consumers decreased their spending and more than one-third increased their spending. But, when consumers feel that a company responded very poorly after a bad experience, almost three-quarters of them stopped or decreased their spending with the company.
“Every company delivers some bad experience, but the good ones build loyalty by quickly responding to these issues and learning from their mistakes,” stated Bruce Temkin, Customer Experience Transformist & Managing Partner of Temkin Group.
