by Reviewrz

Created on: March 08, 2007   Last Updated: April 13, 2007

Statistics reveal that if someone has a bad experience with a business, they tell 7 people. For a good experience, they will only tell 1. Why don't businesses realize the damage of bad customer service? It is almost as if customer service is separate from the business itself, and a lot of businesses adopt a "Some businesses pride themselves on customer service, we excel in other areas" mentality. I don't understand why that is so prevalent.

Sure, a business can become a good, big and profitable business even if it has customer service. In fact, it seems that the norm is for businesses to grow from a smaller, customer friendly business into a giant which cares little about the customer. By that point, they have such a dominant market share that for them, customer service is not important. It is unfortunate that it works that way, because the result is that big businesses, which have more customers than customer friendly small businesses affect more people. The more this happens, the more the culture of poor customer service becomes acceptable.

What businesses don't realize is that often, good customer service is free, or so minimal compared to their marketing budgets that they are making a massive mistake in forgetting it. How much more pleasant would it be if companies staffed call centers with a couple more people to ease the horrendous waiting time? How much better would you feel if you received a 'Thank You' note after paying your bill?

I believe that the problem stems from the fact that often, customer service becomes an issue after the sale has been completed. Business don't factor in the potential for repeat sales, and as a result, they neglect the customer. Perhaps they don't appreciate that while they spend time and money marketing towards new customers, they marketing efforts for existing customers is the customer service that they offer.

It appalls me how poorly customer service is rated in big and small businesses alike. Luckily for the consumer and with the rise of e-commerce, there are so many businesses out there offering the same or similar service, that the theory of evolution will hopefully weed out poor customer service companies over the long run.

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