The majority of Australian consumers feel that companies are not aware of customer dissatisfaction, with few trying to win back business, finds a recent survey.
The study, commissioned by cloud-based company RightNow, examines the responses of over 700 Australian consumers, focusing on customer experiences across seven of Australia’s key industries; telecoms, internet service providers (ISPs), insurance, finance, travel/hospitality, utilities and online retailers.
The study found that while 58 percent of the respondents said they had stopped doing business with a company following a poor customer experience, only 35 percent felt that the company was aware that they had defected, while a meagre 26 percent said that the company had tried to win back their business.
The study paints a pretty bleak picture of customer experiences in Australia, according to RightNow’s Vice President Asia-Pac South Brett Waters.
“Even when consumers try to be proactive about ill treatment and remove their business, there’s no guarantee that the company will notice and even less evidence that they’ll try and win back that business. It seems as if companies are reliant on consumers staying put because of lack of choice in the market – no wonder Australians believe all companies are the same when it comes to customer experiences! Clearly, for an organisation willing to invest in delivering superb customer experience there’s a massive opportunity to use that at as a competitive differentiator and win the hearts and minds of all those disaffected customers,” says Mr Waters.
The study also found that social networking sites are becoming more popular among Australian consumers, with 57 percent happy for companies to use social networking sites to provide them with discounts and offers. From a customer service perspective, 49 percent would welcome interactions with companies following a negative comment they had posted, as would 56 percent following a positive comment post.
