Customer rage costs $202 billion in repeat sales

Companies may be losing more customers than keeping them because of ineffective customer service efforts, according to the 2015 Customer Rage Survey. “Businesses need to start listening to and delivering on what customers want,” says Professor Mary Jo Bitner, executive director of the Center for Services Leadership.

Companies may be losing more customers than keeping them because of ineffective customer service efforts, according to the 2015 Customer Rage Survey. The study, conducted by Customer Care Measurement & Consulting in collaboration with the W. P. Carey School’s Center for Services Leadership, shows 54 percent of American households experienced at least one problem with products and services they purchased during the past 12 months, an increase of four percent since 2013. Customers also are less satisfied with the service received when they complain. In fact, 63 percent of complainants reported they received “nothing” in return. About $202 billion in repeat sales and service is at stake for the businesses involved.

“Businesses need to start listening to and delivering on what customers want,” says Professor Mary Jo Bitner, executive director of the Center for Services Leadership at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, who helped design the survey. “Customer service is not formulaic. Its success depends on a product or service in relation to its customers. The companies that are doing it well regularly take the pulse of their markets and audiences."