Do you know what your customers are actually saying about you? Many companies see the absence of negative feedback as a sign of satisfaction, but research shows that only 1 out of 26 unhappy customers ever complain. What’s worse, 91% of those unhappy customers simply leave without saying anything.
How are we supposed to know what customers think if they don’t tell us? I want to share with you what I have learned about listening to the voices of your customers.
Research shows that only 1 out of 26 unhappy customers ever complain. What’s worse, 91% of those unhappy customers simply leave without saying anything.
A few years ago, a couple of friends and I started what is now one of the largest Data Science & AI communities in Colombia. I love the meetings we do because we get to talk about how data is actually being used and the main challenges companies face today.
After one of the meetings we were talking with one of the attendees, a guy who regularly works with some of the largest market research companies in the country. He shared a problem that we immediately recognized.
If you are a marketer or in charge of your company’s digital channels you will likely agree that one of your main priorities is getting to know your customers in order to build relationships with them. Even with this priority in mind, he explained a central challenge companies constantly face: having access to a lot of data, and not knowing what to do with it.
I have a personal story to illustrate this. Several years ago, I helped my parents run a coffee shop in the Canary Islands. Listening to our customers was as easy as smiling, saying hello and starting a conversation. These informal and short conversations guided our decisions, and over time we were surprised to discover that people were coming from other islands to visit our shop.
We knew our customers well, and it helped guide our decisions, and our business thrived.