We stress constantly how critical it is for a company to have two-way communications channels that take ownership of negative input from people who matter to the bottom line. This dissuades them from relaying their bad experiences unimpeded into the information glut, where even minor annoyances take on a terribly influential life of their own.
A new study from Wharton Business School underscores this point.
The survey found that consumers who hear about someone else’s rotten experience at a particular store are five times as likely to avoid the place themselves. “Hearing about problems,” the report summarized, “puts more business at risk than experiencing them firsthand.”
One of the reasons this happens is because, well, people tend to exaggerate. They make stuff up. And it gets better as the story gets passed along.
Shocking, I know. In the same way advertising inflates the near-orgasmic joy that inspires beaming consumers to dance giddily among store isles, so do real-world customers transform not finding what they wanted into a grueling ordeal where they barely stopped themselves from squeezing the skinny little neck of a condescending, snickering sales associate.
Does this Rule of Glorified Dissatisfaction apply to only retail? Of course not. Regardless what business you’re in, there’s somebody out there telling somebody else about how they heard from a friend who has a brother who said your company really sucks.
Whether or not those stories get legs... that’s up to you.
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Wharton School | Baker Retailing Initiative
Tags: Retail, Sales, Customer satisfaction, Experience economy
