How loyal are you?

Has poor customer service ever caused you to take your business somewhere else? You’re not alone. According to a recent survey of over 1,000 U.S. adult consumers, a single negative experience with a customer call center would likely cause 68% of the respondents to take their business elsewhere. Survey results also revealed consumers expect excellent service in return for brand loyalty: 87% of people felt they had a right to a better contact center experience if they regularly spend money with a company or stay loyal to a brand. 51% of people said the main reason for their dissatisfaction with a company is poor customer service or a bad contact center experience.

Here are recent examples of car salesmen behaving badly… Three years ago, I entered into a lease agreement on a car. I planned on purchasing it at the end of my lease and had built up quite a bit of brand loyalty due to a good track record with the car and the dealership’s service department. As my lease was nearing the end, I set out to negotiate the purchase price of my car (I discovered that the residual value was higher than the current market value, according to Kelley Blue Book). So, I called the dealership to discuss my options. The salesman really wasn’t interested in selling me my car- he wanted me to purchase a new one. After much back and forth, he asked me what number he needed to get to in order for me to buy. When I told him, he said, "you're really working me hard” and that he really didn’t know what I wanted him to say. I told him “nothing and thanks.” Initially, I had no intention of getting rid of the car – but I decided to go check out the competition.

That weekend, I went to a different car dealership. After test driving a couple of automobiles, the salesman promised to call the next morning with some figures (since it was near closing time). When it became late afternoon the following day and I had still not heard back, I contacted him. He said that he was off work that day and would need to call me back in the morning. The next day, he had someone else contact me who really didn’t know all the details originally discussed. The pricing he gave me was ridiculous. Frustrated, I called (or e-mailed) a total of 6 dealerships to get price quotes. Here are the results: 66% of the dealerships didn’t follow up when they said they would and 50% of the dealerships e-mailed price quotes back but were way out of line with where I told them I wanted to be.

But, one dealership was different. Not 10 minutes after I pressed “send” on the online request for quote, my phone rang (and it was 8:43 pm!). This salesman was extremely helpful, polite and came up with several options right off the bat. During the next week, we negotiated the details over e-mail (rather than wasting a lot of time sitting in the car dealership). He came up with multiple pricing options, sent a credit application via a link to their secure site and was always quick to respond.

It’s clear that companies who communicate through the RIGHT CHANNELS, provide SOLUTIONS and are in tune with the importance of EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE will ultimately prevail over those who don’t. The original salesman finally called back and got to the figure I was looking for - but it was too late.… So guess which one got my business?? Oh, and they also took care of my car tag - it’s being mailed to me. :-)