This link is crude but does make a point. How many of us have experienced this type of customer service? This parody captures a not so unreal sequence of events that many customers experience when calling customer service.  So if this experience is common place, why do customers accept it? Or do they?

Good customer service becomes an excellent marketing tool for organisations. It is widely accepted that is it easier and cheaper to keep customers than it is to win new customers. So why do organisations scare away their customers by offering poor customer service? Is it the intangible nature of showing the direct benefit of providing good (or great) customer service versus the cost? Another great (and cheap) marketing tool is word-of-mouth. However the flip side here is that word-of-mouth can be quite damaging and detrimental if a negative experience has been experienced.

In a Harvard Business Review it has been reported that that if an organisation can prevent 5% of their customers from leaving, their bottom line profit could increase by 25 – 95%. This is a staggering figure for retaining just 5% of your customers.

Also, US News and World Report did a study and found that in America, the average business loses 15% of its customer base each year breaking the figures down further as follows:

· 68% of customers who stop buying from one business and go to another do so because of poor or indifferent service.

· 14% leave because of an unsatisfactorily resolved dispute or complaint.

· 9% leave because of price.

· 5% go elsewhere based on a recommendation.

· 1% die.

Overall 82% goes somewhere else because of a customer service issue!

With these statistics shouldn’t we take customer service more seriously?