• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 19, 2017

When it comes to running a business, the internet is a beautiful and terrifying place, says a new study by Corra.com. It lets us reach more customers quicker and with less of a marketing budget, helps us stay in touch with customers through email marketing and a constant social media presence, and gives even tiny brands the opportunity to go viral with a particularly funny, touching, or interesting ad, tweet, or campaign.

But it also lets our customers tell us what they think of us with bad, angry, ugly comments included in a very public way. Those negative reviews can be the bane of a company’s existence. The report tackles significant issues about complaints and possible fixes.

In response to complaints and customer service, the report says that 52% complain of a service issue, 31.4% about products and 16.6% about a policy issue. The likeliness of complaining to customer service (on a scale of 1 to 5… 1 being least likely) short list looks like this:

There are plenty of things that can go wrong in a customer interaction, says the report, but in the minds of customers, according to the 2,000 surveyed, the worst offense is a customer service mishap. Over half of respondents said they were likely to complain publicly if customer service did a poor job resolving their product or service issue.

The Overall Desires When Leaving Negative Feedback (% of respondents):

• Like to save other customers from same experience   73.2%
• Like to see company more upfront   48.7
• Like a refund   48.3
• Like to see a policy change…39.7
• Like an apology   38.9
• Like credit or gift card   28.5
• Like to hurt (company) reputation   13.5

Source: Corra, April 2017

When a customer leaves a negative review, rages at you on Twitter, or writes a scathing blog post, what should you do? To figure it out, the survey respondents were asked what they hoped to accomplish when they complained about a brand. Did they want a refund, an apology, to affect brand policy, or to put that brand out of business?

In response to expectation following a negative response, the top answer is a simple and a rather good-hearted one, says the report: Most customers leave negative reviews to save others from having the same experience. You may not always be able to control a delayed shipment, faulty product, or a bad customer reaction to your business policy, says the report, but you can control the responsiveness of your customer service, the department’s empathy, and its ability to go the extra mile to fix a problem.

And when the problem is fixed, people are likely to remember and mention it in their review. They may even go back and edit a review to reflect their new experience. According to research, 70% of people whose customer service complaints are resolved in their favor will do business with you again.

And, speaking to tolerance of bad treatment, the report finds that 10.3% would give the company up for good after one chance; 89% after two; the percentage of consumers who would give the company a second chance.

Finally, the study asked survey respondents for the industries they’ve most had trouble with when it comes to customer service. The most common answer, by far, for men and women was cable companies, followed by cellphone providers, airlines, and restaurants.

For additional information from Corra, please visit here.