Keeping your current customers is far less costly than building up a new customer base. In fact, you can count on a loyal customer to be worth almost 10 times the amount of their first purchase. From finding a more personalized way to interact with your target audience to outsourcing customer service assistance, you have key ways to make sure your customers remain loyal to your company.
A study from RightNow opened the eyes of many when it was revealed that 89% percent of U.S. adults said they do business with a competing company after a single bad customer service experience, and 86% said they would pay more for a better customer experience. What does this mean for you?
The Cost of a Bad Experience
It’s estimated that the annual cost of bad customer service is around $62 billion. The number is high, in part, because it takes close to 12 positive experiences to make up for one bad one. The trickledown effect is also damaging: A customer who feels they were not taken care of will tell twice as many people about it than they do about a positive experience.
And think about all the work that goes into building a quality lead list and getting consumers into the buy cycle. A single bad customer service experience will drive roughly 73% of them to drop out of the buy cycle and seek out goods or services elsewhere.
There is always a cost associated with pulling in a new customer, but the reward is that you can usually count on a 10-year relationship with them once they make that initial purchase. If they spent $500 that first year and drop you because the interaction between them and your customer service team was problematic, you’ve just lost out on the next nine years of business at a cost of $4,500.
Outsourcing Contact Center Assistance
A lot of information exists regarding the pros and cons of having an in-house contact center, and the cons almost always outweigh the pros. There are large costs involved with the in-house model: the cost of hardware, software and other infrastructure, not to mention the cost of hiring and training representatives.
When you outsource customer service, you save money, but you also get a dedicated team of highly-skilled agents who know how to communicate with your customer base. At Protel BPO, that’s what we bring to our clients.
As a nearshore contact center, we share a time zone with the U.S., but our strength is in our agents. They are bilingual with a neutral accent and go through a rigorous training program that prepares them for any question your customers might have. Simply put, when you partner with us, we become part of your team and improve your customer service. Contact us and learn more about what we bring to the table.