Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

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Poor customer experience causing churn epidemic

The main customer issues behind what Satmetrix calls 'the switching epidemic' are unfair fees and charges, poor products, poor service quality, and rude or disinterested employees.

As a result the study, which was part of the company's annual Net Promoter Benchmark study, suggests that much of the £14 billion spent on advertising each year in the UK could be better spent on delivering a higher quality customer experience.

In fact, only 2% of respondents said they trust advertising the most as a source of information when choosing a product or service. Instead, almost half of consumers (49%) see personal recommendations from friends, family or colleagues as the most trustworthy source of information. Moreover, 15% said they trust consumer opinions posted online more than they trust advertising.

Famous for their sense of fair play, British consumers don't like it when they are not treated fairly. As a result, almost one quarter of respondents (23%) saw unfair fees or charges at their reason for switching providers. An additional 7% switched because discounts were offered to new customers but not to them.

Deborah Eastman, CMO at Satmetrix, noted: "Business choices that seem to make sense from a financial point can negatively impact revenue and reputation if consumers don't think they're fair. If companies drop these bad profits, they will likely recoup lost revenue many times over by keeping their customers for longer and acquiring new ones through recommendations."

The second most common reason for switching (22%) is poor product or service quality. Almost as many (19%) people leave because of rude or disinterested employees. And 12% churn because they can't get anyone to deal with their problem.

"It seems that many organisations choose to invest in attracting new customers through advertising rather than invest in a good customer experience that creates loyalty," said Eastman. "But if companies listened more to their customers, and if employees could understand the impact of their behaviour by seeing customer feedback for themselves, they could significantly reduce churn."

The cost of ignoring the customer experience doesn't stop with a lost customer, either. While 2% might trust what they read in an advert, almost two thirds of consumers (64%) look to other consumers to guide their purchase decisions. As a result, the survey found that a negative experience leads to a negative recommendation and, with it, the loss of a new customer.

"The survey proves that we live in the 'Recommendation Generation', and that the key to being recommended is the experience a customer has," concluded Eastman.

Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Learn the insider's tricks and techniques to turn every customers into a 'super spreader' for your brand. It's better than free advertising. Once you start this ball rolling, your brand can grow rapidly through word-of-mouth, advocacy, influencers, and customer loyalty. Super-charge your company's marketing strategy, build up your market share, and make more sales through repeat business and customer loyalty.

Find out what works - and what doesn't - and who's succeeded, and how they did it. See how the world's top brands keep their competitive edge against all odds.

The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook walks you step-by-step through the techniques, metrics, reporting, analysis, marketing models, technologies, tools and innovations for successful marketing strategies - both traditional and emerging - with expert guidance from thought leaders in every major market. Find out the best ways to gather, analyse, and act on customer data to increase profitability, build your brand, empower your customers, beat the competition, reduce churn, and increase customer profitability. This is a marketing book you simply can't afford to be without.

This book aims to hand you all the facts, figures and research data you need for the best decisions for a more profitable, more engaging marketing strategy. It also highlights all the facts, forecasts and trends identified by our experts from the global Marketing Factbook's vast database of market data, news, studies, research and articles, and presents you with an invaluable library of ideas and practical support you can call upon at will.

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Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)