Without customers, no business would exist. Customers are responsible for paying the bills and making sure you remain in business. But what happens when you begin to lose your customers?
Many female entrepreneurs have wondered why their customers don’t return and what can be done to turn the tables around. In this article, you’ll learn five common reasons why you’re losing customers (and profit) and what you can do about this.
Let’s dive right in and see five common reasons why you could be losing customers and profits to your competitors;
- Poor Customer Service.
This is by far the biggest reason why you’re losing customers and profit to your competitors. Consider the following statistics:
- 89% of customers will switch to a competitor immediately after a bad customer service experience.
- A customer who is dissatisfied will tell 9 – 15 people about their bad experience.
- 13% of people tell 20 people about their bad experience.
- It takes 12 good experiences to make up for one bad experience.
You’ll agree that the figures above can be quite scary. Rather than allow this scare you, this should motivate you to invest in your customer service unit to ensure that they’re not chasing your customers away seeing that it is seven times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain existing ones and existing customers spend 33% more than new customers.
So work on your customer service to ensure you’re not sending them to your competitors.
- You’re not listening to your customers.
One of the reasons why you’re losing customers could also be because of unmet expectations which are likely to occur when you’re not listening to your customers.
It has been found that 96% of customers will not complain about a bad experience and 91% of the customers who do not complain will not return.
When a customer complains about a feature of your product, your service or any aspect of your business, take it as an act of kindness because about 10 people felt the same way but just didn’t tell you.
This is not a negative criticism but feedback to help you improve your business offering and be better positioned to thrive.
Here’s how Bill Gates puts it; “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
- You fail to deliver on your promise
A significant number of customers will not return when you failed to deliver on your promise to them. Be wary of salespeople who lie and make unrealistic claims in a bid to convert a new prospect into a customer. They’re doing more harm to your business than good. Not only will you lose the chance to do business with them again but you they also get to tell other people about their bad experience which further harms your brand.
Customers will do business with you if they trust you and honesty is an essential ingredient to building trust. Build trust with your customers by delivering on your promise.
- You’re changing too many people they know.
It can be really tempting to assume that what keeps loyal customers is love for your brand, this is not necessarily true. They most likely love your people. As a small business owner, you need to understand that customers don’t buy from companies; they buy from people. Be careful not to change the people who are in direct contact with your customers at the slightest mistake.
- Your problem resolution process is too tedious.
When it comes to making employees meet up to operational standards, policies and guidelines are great. But a customer with a problem doesn’t care about your policies – she just wants her problem fixed. If your conflict resolution process is too tedious, you’ll lose customers to your competitors. People want to know they can call if they run into a problem and be attended to – the faster the better.
So there you have it, 5 reasons why you could be losing customers to your competitors and what you can do to turn the tides in your favor.
