By
Robbie Richards
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Date Published: April 06, 2016 - Last Updated August 22, 2018
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Comments
Ask any business owner what their top business expense is and you'll hear things like:
Advertising.
Employee overhead.
And, while all are important to operating a successful business, and come with large costs...
They are not actually the costliest.
In fact, your largest business cost doesn't even show up as a line item on a balance sheet or expense report.
What am I talking about?
Bad customer service.
It is the ultimate hidden cost, burning almost every business on the planet in some way or another, at some point in time. Let's look at a couple numbers to illustrate:
89% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company because of a bad experience.
AND…
95% of those people will tell others about it.
Poor customer service is the single fastest way to lose existing customers, and prevent potential clients from ever doing business with you. In fact, 86% of people will not buy from a company that has negative online reviews.
It costs US businesses over $84 billion a year. That's almost the entire annual GDP of the state of New Mexico.
Despite the bottom line implications, customer service is often an after thought for many companies. More resources are poured into acquisition, while just 16% of companies make retention a #1 priority.
As a result, companies end up paying 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer, lose business to the competition, and watch as margins shrink under the weight of dissatisfied customers and negative word of mouth.
Still not convinced?
The team over at JitBit have put together the infographic shown below. It takes a closer look at the financial costs of poor service, top reasons why your customers might jump ship over to the competition, identifies the consumer segment least tolerant of bad service, and shows how investing in good customer service skills can help grow your bottom line 25%-95%.
