Three Businesses That Failed For Lack of Customer Service
There are a number of reasons why businesses fail; poor planning, inexperienced owners, market downturns – you get the idea. But a new article for Inside Tuscan Business.com suggests that one reason is showing up more than any other – bad customer service. The Better Business Bureau in Tucson, Arizona deals with a variety of customer complaints across all industries; but what these complaints have in common is that they are usually rooted in customer service.
While some situations leave customers so irate there is just no pleasing them, the majority can be satisfied if a business listens and engages with them appropriately. With the recent bankruptcy of the customer service- adverse Blockbuster, the number or business failures related to poor consumer relations warrants closer examination. While customer service is certainly known to have a bigger effect on small businesses, are larger businesses who fail to listen their customers becoming just as susceptible?
When a huge corporation like Blockbuster fails it is often seen as due to a lack of innovation or increased competition. Then again, what is seen as a “failure to adapt” could just as easily be expanded to ‘a failure to listen to what customers want’. Instead of taking note that people who watch movies increasingly liked to watch them online and/or without the inconvenience of having to leave their home, Blockbuster continued to offer the same basic service (including what many considered “exorbitant” late fees).
Customer service is not just about resolving complaints; it’s about analyzing customer feedback and listening to what the people who use your products want. Most CEO’s don’t deal with unhappy customers face to face, thus they either don’t clue in fast enough to changes in consumer behavior (or worse) they just don’t care. In any event, listening to your customers just got a whole lot more important.
Check out the full article (including a great chart of BBB statistics) here:
