Every company claims to make customer service a number one priority, but that promise often falls flat.  Yet this is an area that SelectCom has consistently prioritised in its operations, and an area that we believe makes us stand apart from the “Telecomopolys”.  And we do this because we learned a very important thing about Canadian customers.

They can be silent complainers.  Let me explain. 

The Canadian customer is unique. Unlike American customers who will roar if their service expectations aren’t met immediately, if the Canadian customer is not satisfied with their experience they will politely disappear to never be seen or heard of again.

The Canadian customer is more likely to tolerate a subpar experience but 68% say that once gone, will not return to the same company. All the while, only 17% provide negative comments online. According to a survey conducted by American Express, 94% of Canadian customers talk about their experience with others. On average, they tell 8 people about the good and 17 about the bad.

They may not complain directly to the company that provided a bad experience, but they will spread their stories amongst their peers.

We had a customer relay a story to us recently about their experience with a large telecom provider.  Their “fixed price” bill had gone up $10 despite having a contract in place.  After waiting on hold for 30 minutes a customer service rep explained to them that the price was not specified in the contract and that they could raise it at any point.  And no, they couldn’t do anything to rectify the issue because of “policy”.    This isn’t an isolated example, as our teams hear stories like this every day.  It’s sometimes the key reason why our customers are choosing us.

The Impact of Poor Customer Experience

We know that having a poor customer experience can directly impact a business’s bottom line, but many businesses find this hard to quantify.  But there’s good data about what Canadian’s think about their experiences.

1. 40% of Canadians believe businesses are paying less attention to customer service and only 2% believe companies exceed their expectations.
2. 78% of customers ended a business relationship due to poor customer service and 49% of customers have switched to a direct competitor.
3. Lastly, 57% of customers have walked away from a business transaction in the past year due to a poor experience.

It’s costly to attract customers.  We make significant investments in marketing and sales to let customers know about is.  If half of our customers were walking away because of a poor experience, we would have to pay twice what we do to attract customers, which would not only lead to fewer customers but our costs would increase and so would the prices we pass on to them.

It’s more profitable for us to care for our customers. 

That’s why it matters.  From a business perspective, we’ve learned that it makes business sense to keep our customers happy, and it enables us to provide better services at better rates for them.  And at the end of the day, we’re customers too and we know how frustrating it is to have a business hide behind policy when something goes wrong.  That’s why we are always available, and we’ll always be there to make your experience great.