{"id":323265,"date":"2016-02-10T00:29:45","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T08:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andyhanselman.com\/2016\/02\/09\/want-to-increase-customer-loyalty-deal-with-disappointment\/"},"modified":"2016-02-10T00:30:06","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T08:30:06","slug":"want-to-increase-customer-loyalty-deal-with-disappointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/want-to-increase-customer-loyalty-deal-with-disappointment\/","title":{"rendered":"Want To Increase Customer Loyalty? Deal With \u2018Disappointment\u2019!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only\u00a029% of Business To Business customers are fully \u2018engaged\u2019 with their suppliers \u2014 that is, they have \u2018bought in\u2019 and feel attached to the companies they do business with. The other 71% are ready and willing to take their business elsewhere!<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to a new report by Gallup<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, who\u00a0analysed responses from over 18 million B2B customers and it\u00a0reinforces the fact that customers are becoming less loyal.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s clear that many businesses\u00a0are not helping themselves!\u00a0Gallup\u2019s research reveals that 20% of customers have encountered problems with a company or product<\/strong> in the past year, but only 40% think the supplier actually resolved their problem<\/strong>, \u00a0and only 5% of said they are \u201cvery satisfied\u201d<\/strong> with the way the company handled it! We\u00a0call them \u2018Disappointed\u2019 customers, and the way they are \u2018engaged\u2019 and dealt with can have a serious impact on the business. \u00a0In fact, Gallup\u2019s \u00a0analysis found that those businesses that have high customer engagement scores outperform those with lower scores by at least 30% across outcomes such as profitability, sales and customer attrition<\/strong> \u2013 that\u2019s important stuff!<\/p>\n

The vast majority of customers accept that things go wrong. It\u2019s the\u00a0way it gets dealt with that counts!\u00a0Our research<\/a><\/strong><\/span> shows that 3<\/span>D<\/span> Businesses\u00a0<\/strong>spot and \u2018Deal With Disappointment\u2019<\/strong> \u2013 they look for it and, crucially,\u00a0do something about it!<\/p>\n

In fact 3<\/span>D<\/span> Businesses<\/strong> encourage customers to complain<\/strong><\/a><\/span> so that they can sort things out! \u00a0How do they do it?<\/p>\n

Well, here are\u00a05 steps to consider when \u2018Dealing With Disappointment\u2019:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1. Acknowledge It!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A business that acknowledges that it got things wrong, particularly if it is \u2019out of character\u2019, and deals with it effectively, can often turn \u2018Disappointment\u2019 into \u2018Delight\u2019. In other words, just because things go wrong, it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ve lost that customer. Acknowledging the problem can demonstrate that you actually care, and many will respond positively. In fact a real measure of the strength of your customer relationships is the size of \u2018cock up\u2019 you can make and still keep the business. (By the way, please don\u2019t take this as the key learning lesson from this blog and test it to its limits!).<\/p>\n

\"Devoted2. Empower For It!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As a result, the best businesses \u2018empower\u2019 their people to \u2018Deal with Disappointment. \u00a0I\u2019m often sceptical about the word \u2018empowerment\u2019 because it\u2019s so over used, but in those businesses that do it properly, things get done when things go wrong.<\/p>\n

A simple test to see how \u2018empowered\u2019 your people really are is\u00a0\u2018How much can our people spend or authorise to solve a customer\u2019s problem\u00a0without having to come to senior management for \u2018permission\u2019?<\/em> For example, Timpson\u2019s allow \u00a3500<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and Ritz Carlton Hotels give everyone in their business authority to spend up to $2000 to resolve a customer\u2019s problem<\/strong><\/a><\/span> or deal with a complaint on the spot without having to get permission from a manager. Now, THAT\u2019s empowerment!<\/p>\n

3. Prepare For It!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What are the things that typically create\u00a0your Disappointed customers? Why not get your people together and identify typical or regular problems, and then develop ideas and solutions to sort it out. Train them, put processes and systems to deal with disappointment.<\/p>\n

4. Look For It!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Instead of just \u2018Dealing with Disappointment\u2019, 3<\/span>D<\/span> Businesses<\/strong> look for it. They don\u2019t wait for complaints, they go out and find them! In fact, they probably get more complaints than others because their people are actively asking for them!<\/p>\n

It might seem weird, but the easier you are to complain to, the more customer focussed you\u2019re likely to be!<\/p>\n

5. Just Deal With It!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So go on, you know it makes sense. Disappointment? Learn to look for it and \u2018Deal\u2019 with it!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Disappointed\u2019 Customers are just one of the 10 D\u2018s Of Different Customers \u2013 a D<\/span>ramatically D<\/span>ifferent<\/span>\u00a0way of\u00a0helping you focus and maximise your sales, marketing and customer relationship management efforts and resources. For a free 20 page e-book that outlines what it means for your business click below:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Get<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only\u00a029% of Business To Business customers are fully \u2018engaged\u2019 with their suppliers \u2014 that is, they have \u2018bought in\u2019 and feel attached to the companies they do business with. The other 71% are ready and willing to take their business elsewhere! That\u2019s according to a new report by Gallup, who\u00a0analysed responses from over 18 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[128,95],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}