What Happens to Dissatisfied Customers?

Surveys suggest you may have more dissatisfied customers than you think.

If you think, because you only have a few complaints, that most of your customers are satisfied, you may want to evaluate some of the survey results mentioned below. Be sure your products are producing satisfied customers. Check with them. Ultra BOND delivers satisfied customers.

• Customers who complain to headquarters represent only 2-4% of all dissatisfied customers. Technical Assistance Research Program Institute, Consumer Complaint Handling in America: An Updated Study for the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs (Washington D.C., 1986) Part II, Chapter 3.
• Only 2% of unhappy customers complain, while 34% of all dissatisfied customers switch brands. Survey by A.C. Nielsen Co., see C. L. Kendall and Frederick A. Russ, "Warranty and Complaint Policies, An Opportunity for Marketing Management," Journal of Marketing (April 1975), P. 37.
• The dissatisfied will complain to between ten and twenty friends and acquaintances, about three times more than the number of people extremely satisfied customers will tell about their experiences. Technical Assistence Research Programs, "Measuring the Grapevine, Consumer Response and Word of Mouth" (Coca-Cola USA, Atlanta, GA, 1981).
• Bad word of mouth depresses sales twice as much as good word of mouth elevates sales. (John Amdt, "Role of Product Related Conversations in the Diffusion of a New Product,"Journal of Marketing Research (August 1967), pp. 291-295
• Word of mouth has twice the effect on a consumer's repurchase decision than corporate advertising does. The Information Challenge, General Electric Company, Louisville, KY, 1982
• The single best way to drive away a customer is to make him keep coming back to get the same problem fixed. J.D. Power, "Recurring Repair Problems Undermine Customer Loyalty," The Power Newsletter (March 1982), pp. 4-5
• Customers that are well served tend to cooperate more in the service processes, making it easier and less expensive to satisfy them and to increase their levels of satisfaction. Richard Normann, Service Management: Strategy and Leadership in Service Businesses (John Wiley & Sons, 1984), Chapter 12, pp 117-127

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