To examine the links between customer service and loyalty, the Customer Contact Council, a division of the Corporate Executive Board, conducted a study of more than 75,000 people who had interacted over the phone with contact-center representatives or through self-service channels such as the web, voice prompts, chat, and e-mail. Our research shows:Ģ5% of customers are likely to say something positive about their customer service experienceĢ3% of customers who had a positive service interaction told 10 or more people about itĤ8% of customers who had negative experiences told 10 or more others Service failures not only drive existing customers to defect-they also can repel prospective ones. They conclude that we are reaching a tipping point that may presage the end of the telephone as the main channel for service interactions-and that managers therefore have an opportunity to rebuild their service organizations and put reducing customer effort firmly at the core, where it belongs.

And they make available to readers a related diagnostic tool, the Customer Effort Audit. The authors also introduce the Customer Effort Score and show that it is a better predictor of loyalty than customer satisfaction measures or the Net Promoter Score. The Corporate Executive Board’s Dixon and colleagues describe five loyalty-building tactics that every company should adopt: Reduce the need for repeat calls by anticipating and dealing with related downstream issues arm reps to address the emotional side of customer interactions minimize the need for customers to switch service channels elicit and use feedback from disgruntled or struggling customers and focus on problem solving, not speed. But a study of more than 75,000 people interacting with contact-center representatives or using self-service channels found that over-the-top efforts make little difference: All customers really want is a simple, quick solution to their problem. The notion that companies must go above and beyond in their customer service activities is so entrenched that managers rarely examine it.

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