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Calgary Herald, 26 / 01 / 2005
Bad word of mouth a business killer: Know-nothing clerks draw most complaints: survey
By Eric Beauchesne
Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - Page E3 Shoppers are making retailers pay for poor service by bad-mouthing them to friends and family, half of whom will then boycott them, a new study claims.
"More than 50 per cent of Canadians say they will not even walk into a store if they have heard something bad about it from friends or family," according to the study released Tuesday by the Verde Group, a consulting firm that conducts research into the costs of customer dissatisfaction.
"That was a big surprise to us," Paula Courtney, president of the Verde Group, said, adding they expected the proportion would have been a lot less.
The findings, based on a survey of shoppers, not only suggests that negative word of mouth is a business killer, it also reveals that consumers are more likely to complain to friends and family about "know-nothing" customer service representatives than any other problem, Courtney said.
While only five per cent of shoppers cited a customer service representative's lack of knowledge about a product or service as their most important problem, this issue generated the greatest amount of negative word by far, she said in an interview.
Very few customers complain to the organization about a problem, the survey found. However, on average they tell two other people, such as friends or family.
"And depending on the nature of the problem, they will tell more people," Courtney added.
For example, she noted a shopper who is upset about the lack of knowledge about the product or services on the part of a customer service rep will on average "bad-mouth" the retailer to five other persons.
"That means a business can have limited parking, slim pickings on the shelves and an unattractive store front, but if their customer service reps don't know the products and services, each disgruntled customer will tell five others and so on and so on," she said.
The study found shoppers in Ontario are the most likely to experience problems, with 43 per cent saying they have, while those in Quebec the least likely with only 34 per cent saying they have.
"Customer service reps in Ontario were amongst the worst in the country," the report stated.
The study was based on 1,014 responses from Canadians who made purchases under $2,500 and averaging $160 in the four weeks leading up to Christmas.
The survey, whose results are considered an accurate snapshot of the attitudes of Canadian shoppers within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20, also found:
- Approximately 40 per cent of Canadians experience problems when they shop for items valued at $200 or less;
- Canadian consumers hate to wait, with most problems relating to having to wait to be served or to pay;
- Most consumers who experience problems do not complain, but instead they take their business elsewhere;
- The top problem driving customers away is lack of courtesy and respect from customer service representatives;
- Consumers in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia are more likely to experience problems with customer service reps, those in Quebec the least likely;
- Customers who experience problems are three times less loyal than those who experience no problems.
"This should be a wake-up call for Canadian businesses," Courtney said. "These days, consumers are increasingly skeptical, so the shopping experiences of their friends and family are highly influential."
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