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11.20.08 Customer Service Still Ranks Higher Than Price  By Jim Berkowitz Here are several excerpts from a press release about the findings from a recent study on customer service satisfaction, Customer Service, Not Price, Remains Top Cause of Customer Churn: Service again ranked above price as a global driver of customer churn, according to Accenture's fourth annual study on customer service satisfaction, titled "High Performance in the Age of Customer Centricity." In total, two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents reported moving their business to other companies as a result of poor service in a variety of industry sectors, up from 59 percent of respondents in last year's survey. Underscoring the sharp increase in consumers switching business providers is an overall erosion of customer loyalty. Half (50 percent) of respondents in this year's survey reported that they switched providers in multiple industry sectors during the year, taking an average of $4,000 worth of business with them, by their own estimate, each time they took business elsewhere. For the fourth straight year, the Accenture study also found that the number of consumers who left because of poor customer experience was significantly higher than the number of those who left a business because they found a lower price elsewhere - 68 percent versus 53 percent. Among respondents in the United States, the discrepancy was even greater, with 73 percent of respondents saying they switched service providers due to poor service, compared with 47 percent who switched providers because of lower prices.
The findings also revealed that consumer expectations continued to increase. Nearly one-third (31 percent) of those surveyed described their service expectations as higher now than one year ago, and 52 percent described them as higher now than they were five years ago. "Service is no longer just a cost of doing business - it's at the forefront of the battle for the consumer, whether the business is in Beijing, Boston or Berlin," said Robert Wollan, managing director of Accenture's CRM Service Transformation practice. "Consumers around the world are deserting companies in record numbers when they encounter experiences that don't meet their expectations. The upside of our findings is that companies that can leverage sophisticated analytical capabilities to isolate what really matters to their consumers have the opportunity to quickly differentiate their service experience from that of competitors and grab market share." Comments About the Author: Jim Berkowitz is a seasoned executive with more than 30 years of professional services and project management experience related to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Financial Management (Accounting & ERP) software solutions for small, mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. As a Sales Force Automation and CRM Consultant, Jim has assisted more then 100 companies with the design and implementation of custom CRM solutions. Mr. Berkowitz is the founder and President of CRM Mastery, Inc.; a company dedicated to serving small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering affordable tools and guidance to help them plan for and succeed with their CRM initiatives. |
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