Why is customer dissatisfaction worth thinking about? A study by Capita

We've all spent many a year focusing on customer satisfaction, but how often do we stop and focus on dissatisfaction? In the current economic climate it's probably more important to make sure we understand customer dissatisfaction in order to prevent it.

In a study by Capita, a staggering 91% of respondents from large blue chip organisations believed that dissatisfaction matters more than satisfaction.

Why is it so important?

Six Reasons...

1. Firstly, it's part of our culture; the British love to moan. We're all consumers and its part of our cultural make-up to complain! Recent years have seen an inflation in standards, everything is better than it was 20 years ago and consumer expectations are greater than ever.
2. Secondly, dissatisfaction runs a lot deeper; it's much more emotive than satisfaction. We can all remember a time we've received really bad customer service but it's often harder to remember a really great service. A survey by Stakeholder Satisfaction revealed that the most common emotions triggered during a negative customer experience are those of irritation, frustration, stress, anger and unhappiness. These are certainly not the emotions you'd hope to evoke in your customers.
3. Thirdly, customers will complain to anyone but you! 96% of unhappy customers don't complain, they go elsewhere, telling others while they're doing it. One average dissatisfied customer tells 9.5 people. Your customers are more likely to tell their friends, family and neighbours about a bad experience before they complain to you, by which time it's too late, the damage has been done.
4. The fourth reason is because customer feedback no longer stops at the garden fence or the doorstep. We no longer just have to worry about word of mouth. One customer's feedback can reach anyone anywhere on the web. Blogs and social networking sites are a double edged sword. They're a great source of customer feedback but they are vehicles that send negative messages about your company around the world in the stroke of a key.
5. People will and do walk away - they'll vote with their feet. Switching is the norm and it's easy. With price comparison sites ten a penny it really is easy to compare the 'meerkat' for the best deals and service!
6. Finally the economic climate is magnifying the impact. We're all looking for value for money more so today than ever. Interestingly, 82% of respondents in Ventura's study thought the current economic climate was to blame for creating more customer dissatisfaction. The impact of customer dissatisfaction can be huge and in the current climate we need all the customers we can get. Concentrating on reducing dissatisfaction can really bolster our bottom line.

Costs to your organisation

The cost of disjointed customer service is alarming. Failure to tackle this problem can result in a significant loss of profits every day.

With conditions as they are, organisations simply cannot afford to lose business due to customer dissatisfaction.

However it's not all doom and gloom; of those who complain, 50-70% will do business again if the complaint is resolved with 95% returning to do business if it's resolved quickly (Michael LeBoeuf, 2000).

Is it all about how we handle complaints?

No - a good complaints process is a must, but it treats the symptoms not the cause. A good complaints process is essential BUT it's not a panacea... We must treat the root cause of customer dissatisfaction and not the symptoms.

Because dissatisfied customers are more likely to tell someone else rather than you, gathering customer feedback proactively is important. Robust customer feedback loops are critical in achieving this.

A whopping 82% of respondents in Capita's study stated that their organisations were only 'average' at resolving customer dissatisfaction with 9% believing their organisation was below average. Prevention rather than cure has got to be the answer here as cure is proving ineffective. It's certainly surprising that only 9% believed their organisation was above average at resolving dissatisfaction.

The risk of revenue loss from customer dissatisfaction is clear. Rather than focusing on your complaints process, although still important, stamping out dissatisfaction in the first place would prove much more cost effective and time efficient.

Our recommendations

Data collected by Capita showed the top 3 ways recommended by organisations to reduce customer dissatisfaction

1. A leading financial services organisation is focusing on establishing the primary reasons for dissatisfaction and devising targets to improve this.

We all know that retaining your customers is a lot cheaper than acquiring new ones. There is a need to recognise that the demands and expectations of customers have progressed in recent times. The organisation finds that remaining committed to long term strategies aimed at converting customer dissatisfaction into satisfaction is the only course of action.

Once these key factors had been identified action could be taken in order to minimise dissatisfaction. Call routing was changed in order to reduce multiple call handling, and the transfer process was simplified using intelligent speed dials and rationalised contact numbers. Really getting to grips with the primary reasons underlying customer dissatisfaction means you can create effective preventative solutions.

2. Remove processes and policies that drive unnecessary contact and mean unnecessary frustration for customers

Customer dissatisfaction doesn't have to start on the front line, behind the scenes processes and technology are often the culprit! Improving systems integration to provide one view will provide flexibility and reduce the number of transfers.

A study by Silicon Republic found that 29% of an agent's time is currently spent talking to customers. The rest is IT; cutting and pasting, searching for information, updating databases and inputting the same details more than once.

Technology shouldn't let your customers down. Having the right processes in place will provide a much more seamless experience for both your customer and your employees.

3. Integrating the voice of the customer

Capturing the voice of the customer is one thing, integrating it into the organisation and translating it into action is another. Many organisations lack formal methods and processes to do this.

An integrative approach enables an organisation to establish the business impact of managing customer experiences and relationships. Priorities can then be established in order to improve relationships.

Customer feedback can be collected from multiple channels using standard customer satisfaction measures such as first call resolution. The application of these consistent measures to ever-increasing volumes of client feedback will produce comprehensive quantitative reporting associated with customer comments and complaints.

Customer feedback loops are essential and can be obtained through:

4. Call reasoning
5. Voice analytics
6. Post call IVR
7. Customer focus groups
8. Complaints analysis

Finally, aligning targets for internal process metrics is crucial. Try aligning metrics such as average call handling time with target levels of customer satisfaction to incorporate customer satisfaction into standard metrics.

Invest in your customers

Retaining your existing customers is a lot cheaper than acquiring new ones. Recognising that the demands and expectations of customers have progressed in recent times and remaining committed to long term strategies geared at ensuring customer satisfaction is the only course of action for a successful organisation.

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