Businesses must dramatically improve the way they look after their customers if they are to succeed.

Customers today are outraged. A recent study suggests two-thirds of New Zealanders are typically unhappy with the service they get. Research by Colmar Brunton found that 52 percent of Kiwi customers getting a bad experience rate their rage at five or more on a scale of one to ten and 26 percent as eight or higher. University of Queensland research suggests customer rage is caused by rude, uncaring or incompetent team members.

Outraged customers progress from shock, to frustration, anger, exhaustion and hurt. Consequently, they make threats, slander the company, look for revenge or even become violent. In England, an angry customer recently drove his car through a plate glass window at Tesco. In Australia, people sent out to cut off electricity have been threatened with being shot and customers whose appliances failed have threatened to blow up the manufacturer. Give your teams a hug each day before they go out into the marketplace or onto the shop floor because they may not come back!

Of course, you may believe your organisation is an exception to the rule. Perhaps you are right – or perhaps you suffer from delusions of adequacy. One study found 75 percent of managers rated their customer service as being between good and excellent. Unfortunately, 57 percent of their customers rated it as being between good and poor.  An American study found 80 percent of managers believed they were doing a good job of looking after their customers but only eight percent of their customers agreed. Why is there such a disconnect? Studies show 67 percent of companies do not measure

customer satisfaction. Many of those that do, ask customers only about what they think is important. Also, often when managers review survey results, they are quick to look for ways to explain away the results.

To make matters worse, many managers do not understand how the quality of their customer care affects their business. An American study found that nearly 70 percent of managers did not know the cost of getting or losing a customer, or the cost of handling a complaint. In New Zealand, Colmar Brunton research found customers having a bad experience tell 13 others and 56 percent recommend the listener avoids that company. On the other hand, when they have a good experience they tell nine others and one-third recommend the company. London School of Economics research found that organisations having a large number of people saying good things about them and very few saying bad grew four times faster.

Most disturbingly, we still do not seem to get it. A newly released PricewaterhouseCoopers study found only 44 percent of 620 New Zealand managers surveyed plans to grow their business next year by improving their ‘customer focus’. Fifty-six percent are planning to grow by cutting costs, which long-term will not grow your business – or by entering new markets, which is the most expensive and difficult way to grow. Ironically, the survey also found the biggest positive impact on business performance over the last year was gained through better customer focus.