How to deal with the negative customer experience and technology

There are things that are for certain in this world. Death, taxes, and bad customer reviews. How your company overcomes negative customer experiences is the difference between a profitable business and a business losing money to overcome the negative customer experience. I’m going to share three important customer survey statistics that lead to negative customer experiences. Then share how to overcome them.  

“According to the CPX 360 survey, consumers report having to take more than eight steps to resolve a technical problem or issue”

That statistic means a bad customer experience for your business. Which a potential customer will see in customer reviews. Causing the customer to go to your competition.  To overcome this problem your company needs to research how to cut the steps in half or less. Does your customer support training need to be updated? Are there tools or solutions that will help your support team? Reevaluate the steps and the people in each step. Don’t overthink look at from the customer perspective and make it easier for the customer to resolve an issue

“According to the latest online review statistics, more than three out of four (76 percent) of consumers say they trust the reviews they read online as much as personal recommendations.”

In sales this is called the 80/20 rule, 80% of customers tell others of a bad customer experience, while 20% of customers tell others of a good experience. In other words, bad customer experiences are more likely to spread like wildfire. Causing your business to put out fires everyday than focusing on giving customers a superior experience.  Place an emphasis on reading and understanding every review. I know that sounds crazy if you have hundreds or thousands of reviews. With that scenario, take a few of the reviews that are repeating the same issue. Use that information to help fix the issue. Another way is a direct approach through surveys, ask the customer why they’re having issues? Your business will look as if it wants to solve the problem. 

“ On average, consumers report spending 2.5 hours between self-help and customer support; 22 percent give up and return the product for a refund.”

This combines the worst of both worlds: the long frustrating call and product returns.  Not only did you probably lose the customer, and now you have expense of the product return. Your product can be fixed by trials and testing to make it better. To help your customers make self-help videos will make sure your customers know they can go to your site to find the answers.

The most important thing in overcoming negative experiences is acknowledging the customer issues. Then give the customer the appropriate solution whether it’s using customer reviews, surveys, help videos, and growing a helpful community where customers can share their issues and solutions.