The scary part is without a word. You had no idea they were not happy. The silent customer is always the most dangerous. If they are not communicating, you cannot solve their problems. I have noticed a tendency for these silent customers to believe that you the supplier is phsychic. You have got to get them talking, in fact get them downright rowdy.

Complaints department

Imagine you run a take away. You have all the local businesses ordering their lunches. Imagine you upset one of these customers. This customer is a regular that spends R 25.00 three times a week. What if they left without saying a word? What would you lose?

Thats simple math, take R25.00 x 3 = R 75.00 a week. x 50 weeks = R 3750.00 a year.

If you lost just 10 customers like this a month, you would lose 120 customers a year.

Thats R 450 000 a year that you would save if you were complaint concious.

In a survey in the USA it was found that major companies lost 50% of their customers over 5 years. We have already in a previous article discussed the cost of retaining a client vs getting a new one. All customers have a point of no return. They get a little unhappy bit by bit. Then the straw that breaks the camels back and they are gone. If you think all your customers are happy, you are deluded. Its a basic fact of life.

The strangest part is that unless you are really small and know all your customers by name, you cannot measure this attrition. A study of a bank found that they had as many accounts a year later as they had at the beginning of the study. What they failed to measure is how many silent customers moved to another bank.

You may be gaining as much as you are losing thus no alarm bells are ringing. If you look at your customer, you may find they have become bigger and richer, but are not spending that wealth at your business. If this is the case you are losing. Its math. If your clients are spending less with you but more with your competitor you are losing.

It does not matter how good you are, there is always room for improvement. Best of all is you can get your customers to help. Get them complaining, Make it easy.

If you make it difficult to complain, The money you are spending on getting new customers is wasted. If its easier to go away than complain, customers will leave.

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