By Wendy Kram

A recent study reported in the Harvard Business Review found 23% of customers who had a positive service interaction told 10 or more people about it. Conversely, 48% of customers who had a negative experience told 10 or more people about it. Here are 5 steps to preventing disloyal customers and strengthening relationships with loyal customers.

1. Help the customer get the job done:The customer is hiring you to get a job done for them. Focus on the job they want done- they don’t want to buy a TV, they want to watch TV; they don’t want a mop, they want a clean floor. Evaluate how completely you are helping the customer to get the job done. What other products or services could you offer to help the customer get the job done?      
   
2. Reduce customer effort: Reduce frustration and increase loyalty by making it easy for the customer to have their needs met. How can you make it easy? Remove obstacles. Is your website easy to navigate? Does the customer interact with a live person who can quickly and completely process their order? Simplify your processes to create a better experience for the customer.
   
3. Empower employees to meet customer needs: Give employees the freedom and flexibility to deviate from normal operating practices when necessary to create a satisfied customer. Nordstrom is legendary for its customer service. The employee handbook states, “Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service…We only have one rule. Use good judgment in all situations.” Employees have the authority to use their judgment to serve the customer.
   
4. Measure effectiveness not speed:Measure how completely an employee resolves a customer’s problem instead of how quickly they get the customer off the phone. A customer who needs to call back several times to resolve an issue is much more likely to become a “disloyal” customer. An Australian communications company removed productivity measures from the performance scorecards of front line reps. The time to handle a customer call increased slightly but, repeat calls dropped 58%.  
   
5. Stop telling the customer “no”: Identify every instance in which you have to tell the customer “no”. Ameriprise Financial audited their “no’s” and found many outdated policies. Ameriprise modified or eliminated 26 policies in the first year of the program— generating a savings of $1.2 million. More importantly the number of times a customer heard “no” from a service rep was greatly reduced.