Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

This seems to be my day for “simply” sending you along to links. But, this one, Negative word of mouth hurts retailers speaks to one of the blind spots I see with clients in discussing WOM (Word-of-Mouth) viral, grassroots, guerilla (pick your buzz word) marketing.

Here’s the scary number, quoted in the post, from a Wharton study: “out of 100 dissatisfied customers a retailer stands to lose between 32 and 36 current or potential customers.” Ack and Eek! Increase that by a factor of ten (or more) if those unhappy ones blog or post on consumer complaint web sites. (And, don’t we all love to kvetch?)

So, to the blind spot: We get so wrapped up in how to generate positive press and customer buzzing, that we forget the silent unhappy horde (they’re silent to you so you never know they’re ripping your heart out with others.) The “silent ones” include:

1. The shopper who walk into your store, doesn’t see what they want, can’t get the clerk’s attention, and walks out.
2. The visitor to your web site that you force to type in everything but their shoe size before you’ll send them that “free” thing.
3. The client who calls with an urgent request, only to hit the voice mail wall, with no way to get to a live person. (”We’re all at an off-site meeting right now, so please leave a message and we’ll get back to you tomorrow!”)
4. The caller (and potential client) who leaves a message that you never return.
5. The customer who tries to return a product only to be met with your “cost effective” procedures that make it darn near impossible for them to do so.

Well, so much for “simply” passing you along to a link.

Related Posts:
No, we never, ever want to talk to you, our customers.
That ol’ time snake oil GAR-an-tee!
People who need people
Customers - service versus processing

Tags: customer service, marketing, marketing troubleshooting