Retailers Create Loyalty with Customer Satisfaction
This past holiday season saw retailers pulling out all the stops with discounts, BOGO deals and the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas to induce shoppers to buy.
But where was good customer service? Some retailers still don’t get it. Here’s what really happened in stores across America:
• One in four shoppers walked out because of poor customer service (America’s Research Group).
• 58% avoided stores they believed were understaffed. (America’s Research Group).
• 48% of shoppers refused to shop in stores where others claimed a bad experience (2005 study conducted by the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania).
But what constitutes good customer service? That’s not so easy to define, because customer service means different things to different people. For example, grocery shoppers don’t expect a high level of customer service. Grocery shopping is a fairly self-service experience. Generally, if you have a question, there are store personnel available to answer. But send that same person to buy a mattress, or an automobile…and the scenario changes completely.
Thom Blischok, president of the Retail Solutions group for Information Resources Inc., a Chicago-based business-consulting firm, applauds any retailer that makes the extra effort.
“Customer service is not static,” said Phoenix-based Blischok. “It’s highly dynamic and constantly evolving. Customer-service excellence is achieved only after company’s truly listens to what their customers are asking for.”
Tags: Customer Experience, customer satisfaction, icc client exchange