Why Satisfied Customer Defect
ARTICLE www.hbr.org Why Satisfied
Customers Defect by Thomas O. Jones and W. Earl Sasser, Jr.
Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article:
1 Article Summary
The Idea in Brief— the core idea
The Idea in Practice— putting the idea to work
2 Why Satisfied Customers Defect
14 Further Reading
A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications
Product 6838
Why Satisfied Customers Defect
The Idea in Brief
The Idea in Practice
Satisfied customers—a sure sign of your company’s success? Actually not, as Xerox
Corporation discovered. Its merely s atisfied customers were six times less likely to buy again from Xerox than its totally satisfied customers.
To secure your best customers’ loyalty, take these steps:
companies with proprietary technologies) can create “false loyalty.”
1. Clearly define your target customers, i.e., those you can serve best and most profitably.
Be willing to let chronically unhappy customers go—they’re an expensive drain on corporate resources and aren’t likely to feel satisfied, no matter what you do.
5. Completely satisfy customers by providing top-notch support services (making your basic product or service easier to use) and a highly responsive recovery process when something goes wrong.
What explains this? And how can companies ensure true customer loyalty—that single most important driver of long-term financial performance?
COPYRIGHT © 2001 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
There’s a tremendous difference in loyalty between merely and totally satisfied customers. Whether in highly competitive markets (e.g., cars), virtual monopolies (e.g., local phone service), or industries with strong loyalty-promotion programs (e.g., airlines), customers will stray the instant they’re no longer completely satisfied—and have a choice.
Yes, totally satisfying customers requires some investment and ingenuity—but it pays for itself
Customers Defect by Thomas O. Jones and W. Earl Sasser, Jr.
Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article:
1 Article Summary
The Idea in Brief— the core idea
The Idea in Practice— putting the idea to work
2 Why Satisfied Customers Defect
14 Further Reading
A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications
Product 6838
Why Satisfied Customers Defect
The Idea in Brief
The Idea in Practice
Satisfied customers—a sure sign of your company’s success? Actually not, as Xerox
Corporation discovered. Its merely s atisfied customers were six times less likely to buy again from Xerox than its totally satisfied customers.
To secure your best customers’ loyalty, take these steps:
companies with proprietary technologies) can create “false loyalty.”
1. Clearly define your target customers, i.e., those you can serve best and most profitably.
Be willing to let chronically unhappy customers go—they’re an expensive drain on corporate resources and aren’t likely to feel satisfied, no matter what you do.
5. Completely satisfy customers by providing top-notch support services (making your basic product or service easier to use) and a highly responsive recovery process when something goes wrong.
What explains this? And how can companies ensure true customer loyalty—that single most important driver of long-term financial performance?
COPYRIGHT © 2001 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
There’s a tremendous difference in loyalty between merely and totally satisfied customers. Whether in highly competitive markets (e.g., cars), virtual monopolies (e.g., local phone service), or industries with strong loyalty-promotion programs (e.g., airlines), customers will stray the instant they’re no longer completely satisfied—and have a choice.
Yes, totally satisfying customers requires some investment and ingenuity—but it pays for itself