We all know that bad
customer service experiences abound in the retail world, but how influential
are they really? Does a consumer really think about those bad experiences when
they are making a decision to purchase a product or frequent a certain location?
A recent report in the Toronto Star found that they most definitely do!!
The customer service experience and customer loyalty go hand in hand…Fail with
the former and the latter will undeniably suffer.
Covering the 2012
American Express Global Customer Service Barometer, an international study that
looks at customer service experience, the Star
reported that over 60% of those surveyed said that a bad customer service
experience in the past year had negatively influenced their decision to buy a
product or brand. In Canada specifically, the study found that 43% of
respondents considered switching to a competitor after a bad customer service
experience – clearly this does not bode well for customer loyalty.
We have all had our
own bad customer service experience – and they
usually follow a common thread. Customer service representatives with no
knowledge base are not going to be very effective when it comes to promoting
your product. Poor product merchandising and product placement are not going to
increase customer loyalty – they’ll kill it. Any number of things can
contribute to a consumer feeling fed up by a bad customer service experience.
Don’t ignore the power
of social media. People are not willing to sit idly by and deal with a bad customer service experience anymore. Instead, the
study found that 63% of respondents admitted to taking to their social networks
to vent about bad service – a stat that seems to be continually growing. And
these numbers are influential, since it is also true that people feel heavily
influenced by reports on products given by those in their social networks.
Facebook and Twitter are used for a lot more than sharing pictures of that
weekend getaway and sharing about what you ate for lunch!
So how can you turn
that around and ensure that those customers are leaving the store happy with
YOUR brand in their bag? Differentiation is key, so setting yourself apart from
the competition is going to get you the brand recognition you need – and
ensuring a good customer service experience will work to increase customer
loyalty. This is where a merchandising company – and merchandising services – come into play.
So what kinds of merchandising services are important? Experiential
marketing, including product demonstrations, ensuring correct product placement
and planogram execution, as well as making sure that your product is being
continually re-stocked, all work towards creating the right customer service
experience that is going to increase customer loyalty and get those tweets and
status updates working for you!
For more information
about how merchandising services offered by an
experienced merchandising company can help banish the bad customer service
experiences and increase customer loyalty, please contact Storesupport at 1-877-421-5081
or visit www.storesupport.ca.