Anyone failing to take note of the capricious nature of today’s customer really has not been paying much attention. Customers today are more fickle than ever, and there is a growing body of evidence to support this conclusion. What has happened to customer loyalty? Loyalty, once the high water mark of the satisfied customer has been eroding at an alarming rate. This trend calls into question some of the time-honored notions we have of enlightened marketing that a key to long-term market stability and prominence is the ability not only to attract qualified customers but to create relationships and retain those customers over time. We have always mcm backpacks replica known that it is in the economic interest of the firm to first satisfy its existing customers and then prospect for new ones with the understanding that it is cheaper and more efficient to keep the customers we have than to constantly be on the prowl for new ones. Do not misunderstand me, the situation is not as dire as to believe this precept no longer true, nor am I arguing the death of customer retention. However, there appears to be a shift in the nature of what we consider to be customer loyalty.
Consumer behavior is changing, and with it, our notion of what constitutes customer loyalty is in the throes of a perceptible shift in character. According to Convergys, in their 2010 Scorecard Research Report, the number of customers selecting “a brand I can trust” as the primary attribute for selecting a company’s products has dropped mcm backpacks cheap 9-10 percent per year over the past two years. Likewise, Accenture reported an increase from 49% to 69% of consumers having indicated that they left at least one provider last year due to poor service. Further, fully 62% of this study’s respondents indicated that they left their provider as a direct result of the poor quality of the service experience they received.
Customers appear to be poised for service failure and as a result tend to alarmingly over-react to service failures when they are experienced. This is particularly troubling due to research in past years that indicates that customers actually rate companies higher when they have experienced a service failure where the service provider mcm backpacks for sale took immediate and decisive steps to resolve that failure.
There is little question that there are certain industries that appear to have made it their life’s work to do all that can be done to disappoint their customers. Few would argue that it is the fool who leaves a fast food drive-through without first checking the contents of their bags to ensure they have received their complete order. I recently experienced a pimply-faced 17 or 18 year old who brazenly retorted to me upon my angered return to his establishment that I “should have known better than to leave without checking the sack.” While angered by his tone, even I had to agree that he had a point. Service failure in that industry is de rigguere; a condition we have come to expect. Yet this certainly does not make the situation right.