Six Service Tips from the Consumer Forum

Word of mouth is a powerful way to win customers, but also the quickest way of losing them, says research by the Consumer Forum, an organisation founded by Lovefilm entrepreneur Simon Calver to share best practice in customer service.

In a survey of over 2,300, the Forum found that the vast majority of customers just need one bad service experience to take their business elsewhere. On the other hand, 98.4 per cent say good service would increase their loyalty to a brand.

Likewise, face-to-face service is still the most valued, but it's also where businesses can lose the most loyalty. Over 60 percent define good customer service as personal service, but when asked what drives them to complain, nearly a third of consumers cited rude staff.

This tallies with Julian Baggini's lighthearted Complaint Test, where results show poor service in shops and restaurants remain the big gripes in the UK.

The internet's effect on service leaves UK consumers divided, though: 51 percent think it's made matters worse, the rest reckon it's improved service levels. But it certainly influences word-of-mouth, as BNET readers proved in responding to our post on Waitrose's parking problems.

And while the Forum cited John Lewis (Waitrose's owner) and Marks & Spencer among the best loved brands, it recognises that customer feedback has the most powerful effect on where customers spend their cash.

Online brands have already begun to harness feedback from customers to create communities -- personal finance service Mint.com has created a platform called Get Satisfaction for its customers to get support - from the business and fellow customers.

The Forum is doing something similar, but among entrepreneurs, with Forum's charter members -- among them Will King of King of Shaves and Paul Lindley, the founder of Ella's Kitchen -- using this feedback loop to help fellow businesses share best practice.

Here are some tips from Lindley:

1. Don't overpromise -- make sure you know how long a customer's problem will take to fix before you agree to sort it by the end of the week. Each failure to deliver is another setback in a customer's eyes and a reminder that they've got a problem that still needs fixing.
2. Make it easy to access the person who will solve your problem. There's nothing more frustrating than being passed from one department to another, with each new contact needing information about what needs to be fixed.
3. If you don't record and share information about a customer, you'll miss a red flag when they call back with the same issue. Invest in data capture and sharing and keep a log.
4. Don't pass blame -- it may make you feel better to explain that your customer's complaint must've got caught in a backlog in the IT department, but it'll just add to their ire, particularly if you've over-promised (1).
5. Recognise the real deal-breakers: it's aggravating to wait in a phone queue to speak to someone. It's infuriating to be charged for services that have yet to be delivered, or don't work.
6. Don't scrimp on the apologies and offers of goodwill. If all you can offer is an email address and a complaint number, you'll win no awards.