What would you do if a customer was injured at your dealership and you were at fault? I don’t mean serious injury or anything like that. Perhaps just a bump or scrape? Most businesses would apologize or, at the very least acknowledge the mishap to the customer. Perhaps send some flowers or a gift card. You certainly wouldn’t want to ignore it, right?

Well, that’s what happened to an American Airlines customer who was injured when an unsecured drink cart barreled down the aisle and crashed into the passenger. No apology from the airlines was ever received (although it is a tad hard to believe that the stewardesses didn’t at least apologize). The customer wasn’t trying to shake down the airlines at all. He just thought that an apology phone call or card would be an appropriate response for American Airlines to make to a customer injured on one of their flights. Even if only for the sake of customer retention.

The passenger did receive flowers and an apology… but not from American Airlines. The geniuses over at Virgin Atlantic heard of the incident and sent the passenger flowers along with a card that read:

“We might not be who you expected these to be from, but we heard what happened and everyone at Virgin Atlantic wishes you a speedy recovery. And in case you ever fly AA (American) again, we’ve got you covered. Get well soon.” The Virgin Atlantic Team

 When he opened the box that came with the flowers and card, inside were a pair of kneepads, elbow pads and some other protective equipment. Of course, this passenger couldn’t refrain from sharing what was certainly a humorous outreach from a competing airline. Naturally, the story quickly spread around the Internet.

Being in the car business, chances are that you hear stories like this all the time. Not necessarily someone getting injured at a competitor’s dealership, but perhaps simply someone upset at how they were treated or some other such complaint. Whether you see these stories on the news, the Internet, or via social media, there is a good chance of one underlying fact: that customer will probably NOT be patronizing that dealership any longer. Which means they will need someplace else to do business.

Customer loyalty and retention are fickle things, especially in this world of high-maintenance customers who want everything on demand. Owning and acknowledging your mistakes and making appropriate apologies can rectify most accidents or poor experiences with your customers. Failing to do so can leave a wide-open opportunity for that customer to defect to a competitor.

So, whether it was your customer who had a mishap or your competitors, opportunity exists. If it’s your customer, you have an opportunity to make things right and keep them. If it’s your competition’s customer, this very well could lead to a low-cost customer acquisition and some word-of-mouth marketing – or both. Regardless of which end of the situation you find yourself on, reaching out to the customer when the opportunity arises could pay off exponentially.

Customer feedback is important to any business’ growth. That’s why many send out customer satisfaction surveys and managers pay attention to that feedback.

However, sometimes the feedback system is faulty or gets misinterpreted to the point of being useless. Take the feedback system Uber used to have. At the end of each trip riders were prompted to leave feedback in the form of a star rating from 1 to 5. As Uber drivers are contractors, the corporation wanted to ensure customers received good service and a great customer experience from any given Uber driver. Any driver that fell below a certain star rating was disciplined by the company with a suspension or, in some cases, contract cancellation.

An article in Wired magazine details how Uber came to realize that the star system was faulty. It failed to truly reflect a customer’s experience and was vague to the point of being meaningless. Some people gave 5-stars to a driver even though they didn’t have the best ride, simply because they felt bad doing otherwise. Other customers gave drivers low star ratings for reasons that were beyond a driver’s control, including traffic, or how long it took to get picked up.

Uber also realized that its star system didn’t provide the drivers themselves with any useful feedback on what their customers liked or didn’t like about a trip. Therefore, drivers had no opportunity to improve or correct something as they had no way to know what was bothering their passengers if it was not stated during the trip. Uber has now revamped its system so that it includes the star rating while also allowing customers to give feedback in the form of virtual stickers and, if the passenger desires, they can leave personalized feedback via a note. This provides Uber with a better assessment of the driver and can also instill a sense of pride or fulfillment in the driver for a job well done.

In the auto industry we face a similar dilemma. Manufacturers survey customers and assign CSI scores to each survey. These scores can mean the difference between a dealer making or losing a substantial amount of money. However the surveys are formatted similar to Uber’s old 5-star rating system. Each question is either scored on a 1-10 scale or a Yes/No answer. This provides little clarification to the manufacturer or the dealer as to how the customer experience actually went. In addition, manufacturers assign different weights to the questions so a dealer can receive a failing grade on a survey even if every question is answered perfectly except one. Many manufacturers even consider anything less than perfect (100%) as a failing grade. There is nothing wrong with demanding perfection, but it is tough when the grading system is not itself perfect.

Venture back to your school days. Imagine getting a 90% on a math test. In the real world, that would be an “A” and if you or your child brought home straight “A’s”, you would be proud. Yet a dealer who receives a 90% on a survey could be punished monetarily and, unless the customer actually bothers to write feedback, does not know or have any way to change a process or hold someone accountable. In addition, the manufacturer, just like in Uber’s case, has no true idea of just how the customer’s experience went at the franchisee’s dealership.

This isn’t anything new. Dealers have long complained about the unfairness of survey grading and losing money as a result of the weighted questions which don’t really reflect how their customers are treated.

Perhaps the industry can take a page out of Uber’s playbook. True feedback should be in-depth and judged on an individual experience basis. Only in this way can a dealership be judged accordingly, change any needed processes, truly improve and be fairly rewarded.

In their new book, The Intuitive Customer, authors Colin Shaw and Ryan Hamilton contend that companies that try to fight declining customer satisfaction by lowering prices are going about customer satisfaction the wrong way. Instead, they state that the magic to winning customer loyalty is based on understanding what the customer will do next.

An article in MediaPost, recently shared some of the basic precepts in the book, including the fact that roughly half of a customer’s buying decisions are based on how they FEEL about a company and that understanding the psychology behind why they choose a business is key to tweaking processes and services that cater to those feelings.

Sadly, many consumers don’t like going to car dealerships and if roughly half of customer choice is based on how the customer “feels” about a business, there is a long trail to get there. An interesting point shared in the book is that the most irrelevant aspects of customer experience are often the most important. Some dealers spend a lot of time, money and effort attempting to create an excellent customer experience through increased efficiency, improved technology and dealership premises. What they may not consider are the things that are seemingly irrelevant because… well… they’re seemingly irrelevant.

While a recent trend has dealers installing movie theaters, coffee bars and other amenities, perhaps what really influences the customer experience are the “seemingly irrelevant” actions. Those small actions that go towards improving the customer experience, such as cleaning and vacuuming the customer’s vehicle after it is serviced. Many dealerships wash vehicles but not as many vacuum them. If the vehicle looks great on the outside but not so much on the inside, that could perhaps leave the customer with a less than great customer experience. That’s just one small example to provide food for thought.

The last point the author’s make is how do customers REMEMBER their experience? Do they remember inconvenience, dirty bathrooms, inconsiderate or apathetic employees? What a customer remembers is a completely individual experience.

Everyone is different and there is no way to design an experience that is perfect for everyone. Just as in sales, we tailor how we sell and the tactics we use to each and every customer. Perhaps the customer experience should be viewed in the same way. How about making an effort to establish what provides your customers with the best possible customer experience so that they leave happy, with a memorable experience which they will share with their friends and which keeps them loyal to your dealership.

If you get to know your customers, listen to their needs and wants while paying attention to how they respond to you, the chances of identifying the seemingly irrelevant and making it relevant increases. Customers will then leave with positive feelings and memories. And that means increased customer retention and profitability. In fact, according to authors Shaw and Hamilton, this practice “has translated into a 10% year-over-year sales increase for the past 10 years, reduced customer churn and increased market share.” And that’s definitely something worth striving for.

The automotive industry has a sales department staffing problem – and a big one. In fact, NADA has placed the yearly turnover rate as high as 70 percent. Dealerships are in constant hiring mode to keep their sales floor staffed with enough employees to provide coverage for their floor traffic and to follow up with customers and prospects.

Since customer experience and loyalty depend upon employee loyalty, what can dealerships do to increase the chances of hiring the right person that transforms into a long-term employee and successful brand advocate?

For decades, dealerships have recruited new employees through the same old advertising messages and promises. $2,000/month guarantee, unlimited earning potential… blah, blah. Does this sounds familiar? The problem is that this kind of ad can easily attract exactly the type of prospects with the highest likelihood of NOT sticking around long… namely, those that are simply looking for a job to do while they look for one they actually want. Even in the rare circumstances that someone comes along with the ambition and goal of becoming a car salesperson (c’mon, how often does that really happen?), once they start and experience the long hours, grueling work, boring and repetitive tasks and constant rejection by customers as they follow up, they realize that they don’t really like selling cars and, ultimately, leave.

If the old ways of getting employees isn’t working – and clearly it’s not – then what is a better way?

The one thing most car dealerships excel at is marketing. Dealerships are laser-focused on what brings traffic into the dealership, how to market themselves and their vehicles and, ultimately, get those customers in the door to purchase and drive away in a new car. Then, afterwards, they will market to those sold customers to attract them to the service drive with the end goal of turning them into a loyal customer and brand advocate. It looks like this:

Market Cars --> Attract Customers --> Sell a car --> Market Service --> Service --> Create Loyal Customer

Pretty simple, right?

What if we took the same flowchart of activities that dealerships are great at and applied it to recruiting and hiring?

Start thinking about your job opening as a product. You’re trying to sell that job to a customer. To sell it to them, you must attract them to your dealership. By figuring out what those job hunters are looking for in your product (job) and MARKETING your product to prospective employees (customers), you can send a message that is both compelling and attractive to your audience of prospective employees.

Once you attract the right prospects and hire them, then continue to convince them that they should stick around by showing them that they are valued. Be flexible and compassionate and ensure that they know there is room to grow in the organization.

Accomplish that and you’ve created a long-term employee. The only thing left is to continue to make them feel welcomed and part of your organization. You will more than likely find that this person turns into someone who cares about their job, your dealership and becomes a brand advocate for you. This should reduce turnover with engaged employees who are fully invested in the success of your company. Employees who are happy and much more productive. And this combination will result in a better customer experience.

While this is only the first step in creating a loyal customer base, many would argue that it’s the most important. Regardless, by identifying the attributes that prospective salespeople seek from their employees and in their careers, and by ensuring that your dealership is marketing those to the right people and fulfilling those promises when they get hired, you should be well on your way to a more productive and content salesforce.

Humans naturally crave interaction with other humans. However, as technology advances, there is an increasing push by companies to automate as much of their processes as possible. While this is understandable, as it saves on costs, the path technology is taking us down could prove to be a double-edged sword.

Think about all the automated technology that you DO like – for example people love Siri and Amazon Echo is a big hit. The technology that people like the most tends to be more personal in nature – such as speedy access to information, organizational utility and home automation -- to name a few. I don’t know many people who like wading through automated phone trees when calling a customer service line, do you? Have you received any phone calls from robots that sound really human? I bet it doesn’t take long for you to tell that it’s not a real human.

My point is that if human interaction is desired, there’s a real difference between do-it-yourself customer service-type tools and forced automation.

The big trend right now is towards chat bots. If you don’t know what a chat bot is it’s essentially customer service software driven by artificial intelligence. It’s designed to interact with customers using chat via the company’s website, via social media, or over the phone. The problem is that humans communicate in ways which a computer program can’t fully duplicate. And, sometimes, that software fails to answer a customer appropriately and cannot assist them with their need.

According to an article on Knowledge@Wharton, it is also difficult for artificial intelligence to correctly interpret what the customer means when they get frustrated if automation is unhelpful and does not offer them the correct options for their situation -- the computer simply doesn’t know what to do.

How does this affect customer loyalty? Companies that automate too much risk a break down in the customer bond which, in turn, decreases the emotional connection that customer may have with a company. Inappropriate or unhelpful automation, while it may seem cost-saving on the surface, could end up being more expensive as customers defect to competitors or stop caring who they deal with. The article gave a great example of how a company went from a customer engagement win without automation to a customer engagement fail due to adopting it.

“When a political consultant got stuck in an Amtrak elevator at BWI Airport last February, she used the Amtrak Twitter account to get help, and help soon arrived. Seven months later, she received this Tweet from Amtrak: “We are sorry to hear that. Are you still in the elevator?”

Imagine how silly that made Amtrak look. It’s sad that this automated Tweet happened as in fact Amtrak quickly responded and helped the customer. How do you think the customer responded when she received that tweet seven months later? She had a field day with it on social media. According to Wharton marketing professor Americus Reed, “when non-human customer service works, it works extremely well; but when it works poorly, it works extremely poorly.”

Nobody is saying that automation can’t be useful to companies by enabling them to assist customers at all hours, or provide do-it-yourself type tools for them. However, businesses should analyze exactly what type of automation can help their company as well as how it will affect any connection to and engagement with their customers. In some cases, they may find that the negative effect in customer engagement outweighs the savings that the automation offers.

According to Wharton marketing professor Americus Reed, “We have a human side, and there is going to be a counter-punch by companies who choose to focus on connecting with customers in a more human way.”

So, while many may choose to save money and adopt technology that replaces humans, offering 24/7 customer service through automation, these companies may find their customers drifting away -- gravitating towards those companies that choose to make their unique value proposition the more personal, human touch.

Tom Hawkins, Dealer Principal of Hawkins Chevrolet in Fairmont, MN, a cornerstone of his local community, was searching for a way to provide even more support to his local area. He reached out and identified an area that had both a need and a raving group of supporters -- animal lovers. Being a big animal lover himself, he contacted his local animal shelter, Martin County Humane Society of Minnesota, and made arrangements for his dealership to sponsor two animals per month, covering their adoption fees.

The animal shelter agreed to promote the sponsorships on social media via branded posts and chooses which animals to sponsor so as to increase the likelihood that the hardest to sponsor animals are promoted for adoption.

The sponsorship costs just $250 per month ($125/animal) in adoption fees, yet each and every sponsored pet posted to the animal shelter’s Facebook page brings accolades from the shelter’s fans – all of whom live in Hawkins Chevrolet’s selling area. It has produced a storm of goodwill with posts thanking the dealership for caring about the animals and sharing these branded “pleas for help” with all of their local friends and family.

In addition, many of the animal lovers also visit Hawkins Chevrolet’s Facebook page and thank them for helping the animals avoid being euthanized.

However, in the end, for Tom at least, it’s about giving back.

Customer acquisition, loyalty and retention are three things that every dealership is concerned with. Acquisition? No problem. Spend enough money and you’ll get some customers. Retention and loyalty, however, are a different beast. People want to do business with companies that share their values. In this case, Tom has been able to be involved in his community while also capturing the minds – and more importantly – the hearts of many of the animal lovers within it.

Social media has a huge reach: the average person on Facebook has 338 friends. In the example above, that post about Kai (who was adopted) was shared 22 times. Exponentially, the reach of that single post could be in the tens of thousands when you consider how many people “could” have seen it.

Have they sold any cars from their 3-month old initiative? Who knows -- and I sincerely doubt Tom cares. If he cared he would add “Animal Shelter” as a source in his CRM. You want to know what really matters to Tom? The impact and difference he, as a business owner, can have on the people in his community and his customers.

Oh, and you know the person who ended up actually adopting Kai (the dog in the Facebook post above)? He was so impressed with the support of the animal shelter that he wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper.

Perhaps you don’t believe in social media. Perhaps Facebook isn’t something you even bother to care about. If that’s the case, I guarantee that the article, published as a “Letter to the Editor” in the community’s local paper, IS something you care about. Why? Because you probably write some hefty checks to your local paper to market your dealership and vehicles.

This truly is a win-win situation. Tom did not do this for the accolades, he did it as an animal lover and to support his local community. The small investment has been a huge help for the local community and has paid huge dividends in terms of the dealership’s reputation.

In the end, what’s $250/month to help your community, generate positive word-of-mouth, directly impact a couple of people (and animals) a month and, perhaps influence the decision as to where someone should buy their next vehicle.

It’s certainly a lot less than the $640 per customer spent on average by most dealerships today. And that typical customer acquisition cost comes with none of the side benefits, but at over twice the price. You decide which makes better sense. Kudos to Tom and Hawkins Chevrolet for making a difference.

Many businesses, including the automotive industry, have a strong focus on creating a better customer experience through technology. In fact, technology has transformed the customer experience across all industries. Consumers can buy a multitude of products online and have them delivered, in some cases, in an hour. Technology has even advanced to the point that consumers can buy a used vehicle completely online, taking delivery via a vending machine.

However, sometimes technology ceases to enhance and improve the customer experience and starts to degrade it.

Technology has certainly transformed how we do business but, in the end, do consumers really want a complete purchase interaction with absolutely no human involvement? No. What they REALLY want is an easier, more efficient and transparent buying process. Technology has assisted in providing that, but we can’t forget that people buy from people.

It is important to always remember that we are in a “people” business. Let’s look at it from a consumer car buyer perspective. Thousands – perhaps millions – of pages of information are now available online for consumers to access free of charge. Studies indicate that the average consumer visits 24 touch points prior to coming into the dealership, with dealership visits averaging under 2 percent of those visits. As a result, many assume that customers know more than the salespeople do when they show up at the dealership… and they may be right.

However, the problem is the customer still doesn’t know EVERYTHING. No website can illustrate to a customer how a car FEELS, SMELLS or DRIVES. In addition, even the most knowledgeable customer visiting your showroom very likely still has questions to ask and expects answers.

A recent study by the Harvard Business review reported that, “emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers. These emotionally connected customers buy more of your products and services, visit you more often, exhibit less price sensitivity, pay more attention to your communications, follow your advice, and recommend you more – everything you hope their experience with you will cause them to do.” The study outlined how using an emotional-connection-based strategy within an organization can increase these types of customers, reduce attrition and increase customer advocacy. All of these things are exactly what car dealerships need to differentiate themselves from their competition.

I’m not being original when I say that the battle for consumers in the car industry will be in differentiation. Just don’t forget that it’s all about the people – your employees, leadership and customers.

The technology is there to help make the process more efficient, NOT to replace people. Consumers will never have an emotional connection with a vending machine. So, as alluring as that type of buying experience may SOUND, being a great place for people to visit; with great people to interact with; that take good care of your customers; and ensure a superior customer experience; will always win the battle.

Loyalty programs are nothing new to retail. In the beginning, most consisted of simple punch cards or other basic means of tracking customer transactions. As technology improved, many programs became digitized with key tags, cards and other ways for retailers to keep track of these transactions, aside from purely manual means.

Then came big data, enabling retailers to track transactions and analyze consumer purchasing behavior and trends. This resulted in better consumer engagement and more relevant messaging.

However, according to an article on Venture Beat, consumer interaction with brands has now become fragmented, forcing companies to review their loyalty programs and interact with customers via a more multi-channel strategy, rather than just point-of-purchase.

With the explosion of social media, along with various websites and other media, the entertainment industry leads the pack in consumer engagement and tracking. For example, Marvel – the superhero megastar – recently added a loyalty program to reward transactions and engagement across the many channels their consumers use to interact with the company.

And Marvel isn’t the only company adopting this. The Ultimate Fighting Championship also have a thriving rewards program. It rewards fans for doing things they already do to interact with the company, along with things that the company wants them to do – such as to tweet and purchase pay-per-views STREAMING, rather than via their cable provider, so as to bring more profit to the UFC. In exchange, fans can redeem points for items such as signed merchandise and special access to live events.

The Venture Beat article further revealed that, according to Visa 2016 Bond Loyalty Report, loyalty programs are all headed towards personalization and experience. The report shared that, “brands whose representatives make members feel special and recognized have 2.7 times higher program satisfaction.”

Ultimately, this goal of making customers feel special and recognized has always been the point of a rewards program. The only thing that has changed is with the level of rewards some programs now offer, it has become harder to make customers feel special, as many rewards programs don’t have exciting, appealing or attractive rewards.

While customers do like discounts, free services and other normal rewards, some want something more. That could mean VIP treatment, exclusive experiences or other relevant rewards… something that gets them excited and makes them want to earn points in the program, rather than just earning them by default.

The more interested and engaged you can get your customers in your rewards program, the more likely they will be to patronize your business on a regular basis. Don’t simply throw a reward program at your customers and hope they buy in. Create some memorable or unique rewards that are above and beyond simple free oil changes or discounted services. They don’t have to be expensive, just tailored to YOUR customers.

Think about the actions you want your customers to take and transform your rewards program into one that incentivizes them for doing those things. Keep in mind that you can also use loyalty points in lieu of discounts when pushing a specific product or service.

If you need to ramp up tire sales, rather than offering discounts, why not offer extra loyalty points? The other use for loyalty points is to leverage them when customers have poor experiences. The hospitality industry is very good at this. Have you ever had a bad experience during a stay at a hotel then, when you brought it to the hotel’s attention, they apologized with extra reward points? This practice makes the customer happy without any loss of revenue through refunds.

Keep your customer engaged and motivated. They will visit more often and, typically, spend more money on each visit. And that’s all you really want your customers to do in the end.

Customer loyalty is something every business needs and desires. Some companies are spectacular at accomplishing it, while others struggle.

According to a study by DMA, perhaps we’re missing an important fact… not all loyal customers are the same.

DMA’s “Customer Engagement 2016” study, takes customer loyalty a little further. It narrowed the pool of loyal customers into four groups: Active Loyals, Habitual Loyals, Situational Loyals and Active Disloyals.

It’s rather interesting to take a look at this:

• Active Loyals – According to the study, “Active Loyals” contains customers that are loyal to your company for both routine and special purposes. In the case of a car dealership, this would obviously include those that purchase cars from you and those that also service, with you regardless of any “deals” your competitor may have. They trust you, enjoy your service and don’t look elsewhere when they need anything related to their vehicle service or purchase needs.
   
• Habitual Loyals – These are customers that may or may not have purchased their vehicle from you, but are your regular service customers. However, when it comes time to purchase their next vehicle, they will shop you against your competition to make sure they are getting a good deal. They’ll probably still buy from you, based on their previous great experience, but it’s not a guarantee. Treat them right. Be fair when it comes to a new purchase and you’ll win their business.
   
• Situational Loyals – This group is the opposite of Habitual Loyals. They will shop elsewhere for service or parts if presented with a compelling offer. But will return to you when they’re ready to buy a new (or new to them) vehicle, due to the experience you provided. Of course, the lifetime value of a loyal customer is significantly higher when they are servicing with you, so this group is incredibly important to nurture and, hopefully, transfer into the group of Habitual Loyals. Service revenue is more consistent and vehicle margins are continuously decreasing so gaining this group’s loyalty in service is important.
   
• Active Disloyals – This group has no loyalty whatsoever. They’ll bounce from deal to deal without the slightest concern over loyalty or experience. Sure, if they have a bad experience, they’ll probably not return. But regardless how great an experience you offer them, chances are it won’t change their minds. All hope is not lost, however. Just because these tend to be frugal people, doesn’t mean you can’t earn their business. While they may be the most unlikely to be loyal, people change. The key to winning this group’s business is consistency in marketing, customer experience and competitive pricing.

Customer loyalty is a finicky thing. Is it possible to narrow down customers into one of these four groups through data analysis? Perhaps. Transactional records and behavioral patterns can help you identify these people, but it will never be 100 percent accurate. In addition, these groups of loyal customers are dynamic. Individual customers can bounce from one category to the other with one single misstep or perceived wrongdoing.

Customer experience is really the buzz word of today. It pays dividends to pay attention to all your customers and ensure that they have the best possible experience at your store – regardless of how loyal or disloyal the customer may be.

You may think that simply because you offer an excellent customer experience, your customers will be loyal… but what is really happening? Is it possible that YOUR definition of a great customer experience differs from your customers?

A recent article on Business2Community covered how a study by American Express of 11,000 people across the globe, found that roughly 2/5 of consumers believe that, while companies are helpful, they don’t do anything extra to earn their business. Only 7 percent of Americans reported that they felt companies exceeded their expectations; 31 percent reported that companies missed their expectations; and 59 percent believed that companies DID meet their expectations. Hey, 59 percent isn’t that bad, right?

Not exactly. Consider this: The fact that a consumer got a mediocre (meaning not great but not bad) experience at your business probably won’t elicit any sense of loyalty. When you go to the movies, you EXPECT the movie to play just like you expect your oil to be changed in the service drive. Perhaps the movie is a little out of focus, or doesn’t start quite on time, but the problem is fixed fairly quickly. That doesn’t mean you had a BAD experience -- but it certainly doesn’t mean you had a great one. Would that prevent you from returning to that movie theater? Maybe, maybe not. But what if a BETTER movie theater opened up not too far way… one with couches instead of chairs. Ottomans to rest your legs on. That might cause you to change your mind, right? It’s the same thing with consumers. They may not abandon you because they had an O.K. experience. But, if a GREAT experience comes along elsewhere, they just might.

In the same study, 22 percent of consumers felt that companies take their business for granted. And, 75 percent stated that they have spent more money at a business because of a good customer service experience. Which group do you think is more loyal? Well, according to the study, 13 percent report that they would spend more money with a company that provided excellent service. And, a full 35 percent said that companies that do provide excellent service have earned their business. But wait… 44 percent of the respondents EXPECT excellent service and do not believe they should have to spend more to get it. So which is it? Will they spend more for it? Or do they simply feel as if a great experience is expected?

Well, both. Regardless of price, consumers will spend more for great service -- but also expect it. And not only do they expect it, they are vocal about their experiences. When customers do have great experiences, 44 percent will tell other people. BUT, if they have poor experiences 56 percent are more likely to.

How much influence does customer experience have on purchasing decisions? A lot. 55 percent indicated that they did not follow through with a purchase due to poor customer service. Imagine losing out on 55 percent of potential sales or service business. And it can be something as simple as being placed on hold on the phone. How long are Americans willing to wait? Well, we all have limited attention spans and that proves to be the case in this study -- 19 percent are willing to wait up to 5 minutes and 29 percent up to 10.

Customer service and experience are key customer acquisition and retention drivers. Regardless of any other factor, consumers expect great experiences, prompt responses and personalized treatment. Any less than that -- while you may have their business for now, they’ll jump ship to your competition the second they offer a better experience than you do. Analyze, review and make changes that acquiesce your customers. Stop focusing on what YOU think is the best customer experience and start focusing on what THEY do. Only then will you earn their loyalty and reap the benefits.