Excellent Online Business

Studies show that as few as 4 percent of dissatisfied customers complain to the company with which they are unhappy. In the very best of circumstances, a mere 30 percent voice their complaints to a company. That means that 70 to 96 percent of unhappy campers never say a peep to you, anyway. But they will tell seven to ten other people about their displeasure with your company.

With online businesses, it can be even worse. Numerous studies have shown that excellent service is the most important factor in online customer satisfaction. When online customers are ticked off about your site, not only will they tell the seven to ten people they regularly come into contact with, they might broadcast it to the world by posting it on their blog or any of the myriad online complaint sites out there. Plus, because of the immediate nature of the internet, online customers tend to expect a faster response to their complaints.
Another startling reality is that more than two thirds (63 percent) of dissatisfied customers never come back. That's a big chunk of lost business, when you consider that for most businesses, an average of 65 percent of their income comes from repeat business. At a time when brand loyalty is crucial to the success of any business, customer service can make, or break, an online enterprise.

As scary as all this might seem, customer complaints are actually a good thing. After all, you can't fix something if you don't know it's broken. If your site gets a decent amount of traffic and there's something amiss, a weird piece of technology that's not working, a broken link, an egregiously misspelled word, it's really only a matter of time before you get an email or two about it, if you haven't already. In that case, look at a user complaint as an opportunity to improve your site.

Also keep in mind that the majority of your users are probably satisfied with the site as it is and that no one expects absolute perfection. There is only so much you can do to prevent and resolve problems. Inevitably, something is going to slip through the cracks, and when it does, you'll deal with it. Just do what you can to avoid errors and to resolve them when you become aware of them.

Responding quickly, directly, and fully to user complaints will improve customer satisfaction. Sometimes it can even bring back a disgruntled customer. And it definitely will boost your sales.