Enlightening Customer Experience Report

[chucklasker-BANNNED]

I got a link to this in email and found the report extremely interesting. It is only an overview, but has some great data points:

• Outstanding service is more important than low prices and quality products.
  
• 80% of consumers will never go back to a company after a negative experience
  
• 74% of consumers will register a complaint or tell others of a bad experience, up from 67% in 2006.
  
• To understand consumers, companies must first understand how to connect and communicate with them. 60% of consumers cite speaking with a live agent via the telephone as the number one way they want to interact with a company, while 26% said they prefer email. Also, when online, 68% engage with an organization because they need information on a product, service or company. Interestingly, more than half (51%) of those online want the ability to “chat” live via the Web with a customer service representative.

http://www.rightnow.com/resource/res...perience07.php

[PCINET - Andreas]

Re: Enlightening Customer Experience Report

Very interesting! Thanks for the report.

[Pamela Hazelton]

Re: Enlightening Customer Experience Report

I don't see how this report would be overly useful for small businesses, other than the fact that many issues should be a concern for any online store.

Only 2,049 people were polled for this - hardly indicative of a mass response, more akin to the exit polls news organizations conduct.

If 80% is accurate, then I don't know how so many restaurants continue to offer shoddy service. Unless people carry totally different values to brick-and-mortar as they do online stores.

In our latest company snafus (you can read a series I'm posting at Practical Ecommerce) we've had several negative experiences, yet we did not lose 80% of clients. I think they need to define "negative" - and I'd assume for it to be that high of a percentage the negative issue would have had to have gone completely unresolved.

To group "register a complaint" and "tell others about a bad experience" is like saying apples taste like oranges. The 74% is scary for anyone, for sure, but to group those two together - it's misleading. The BBB would never be able to keep up.

The telephone issues make more sense.

I'm not saying that this report shouldn't be read - just that the numbers certainly don't translate to ANY online business I've worked with. If they did, the bulk of us would be out of business.

Note that to download the report I had to complete a form, neither Ecommerce nor Internet Services was listed as a trade, neither was "owner". Just who are they targeting? The lowest annual revenue selection was <$10M

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Enlightening Customer Experience Report

Consider the source...they are trying to sell something...also, they don't give the methodology used so its numbers can be quite dubious.

Regardless, yes, customer service is probably more importent that say a "fancy" design or the latest web widget gimmick...

[chucklasker-BANNNED]

Re: Enlightening Customer Experience Report

I don't see how this report would be overly useful for small businesses, other than the fact that many issues should be a concern for any online store.

Well, I'm not sure why you dismiss the "other than the fact that" part, which is that yes, this is good info for any online store. Other than the fact that coffee has caffeine, I don't see that it helps keep people awake.

What's your overall point, Pamela? That online stores should go ahead and give poor service, it's not THAT bad because they will lose LESS than 80% of their customers by your experience in providing bad service for years?

Only 2,049 people were polled for this - hardly indicative of a mass response, more akin to the exit polls news organizations conduct.

Interesting. How many people did you poll to come to the conclusions you base your site analyses on? Must have been a LOT if it takes more than a couple thousand to have significance to you. Of course, Statistics 101 shows that 2,000 people can be very significant with a small margin of error compared to the populace at large.

http://www.robertniles.com/stats/sample.shtml

If 80% is accurate, then I don't know how so many restaurants continue to offer shoddy service. Unless people carry totally different values to brick-and-mortar as they do online stores.

It all comes down to availability. With restaurants, there are only so many within reasonable driving distance. So, you accept some bad service for the conveneince of a short drive. However, on the Web, the competition that is offering good service is a quick Google search away. Unless you're selling a one-of-a-kind item that people HAVE to get from you, you will lose your online customers much easier than a restaurant loses theirs.

<snip>

I'm not saying that this report shouldn't be read - just that the numbers certainly don't translate to ANY online business I've worked with. If they did, the bulk of us would be out of business.

My experience is, most smaller online businesses ARE out of business, or, more accurately, have never been IN business (profitable), they just haven't accepted it so they keep holding on... I'm not saying that's always due to poor service, but I've had clients talk about how they have to yell at their customers to get them to understand that they should pay $2 to insure their $500 order (instead of just including the insurance), or who don't reply to email inquiries, or who don't have a phone number on their site, or who have Live Chat on their site that always says they're offline, or who have an affiliate program but never bother to approve affiliate applications, etc. etc. etc. and then say that their business is suffering because the Miva checkout is too many steps. 80% may be a high number, but I believe it's gotta be close to that online, because it takes very little, personally, for me to never frequent a site again. Not when there's 400 sites selling the same stuff at the same price.

Note that to download the report I had to complete a form, neither Ecommerce nor Internet Services was listed as a trade, neither was "owner". Just who are they targeting? The lowest annual revenue selection was <$10M

Yeah - weird.

I just felt like it could be a tap on the shoulder for some people who put up online stores thinking it's automatic income with no effort. It isn't - it's actually very similar to brick and mortar in that customers are HUMAN. If the stats are a bit off, but it motivates a couple site owners to improve their customer service and customer communication methods, then it's a successful post IMO. But I guess some people have to question the stats so people don't mistakenly improve their customer service, I guess. How horrible that would be.

Bruce - I haven't yet gotten so cynical as to believe that any survey results printed by someone who sells something is immediately invalid. I just don't believe profit-motive equates to scams every time. At least, not yet...

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Enlightening Customer Experience Report

Bruce - I haven't yet gotten so cynical as to believe that any survey results printed by someone who sells something is immediately invalid. I just don't believe profit-motive equates to scams every time. At least, not yet...

At best, I'd always be skeptical...even when there is no profit motive when methodology isn't available. Perhaps you've discovered it. I asked; never got an answer.

BTW: According to a recent study conducted by Phosphor Media, 87% of Merchant store owners like sardine-flavored pretzels.<G>

[chucklasker-BANNNED]

Re: Enlightening Customer Experience Report

Yeah, their explanation of methodology is non-existant. What's interesting is the "80%." As you have shown in your last post, it's much more believable to use off-numbers, like 87%, or 87.3% - I mean, "nobody makes up those kinds of numbers." But 80%, even if accurate, sounds made up.

97.2% of statistics, of course, are made up on the spot. Out of those, 83.11% are misinterpreted.

Chuck