Customer Satisfaction:

• 91% of unhappy customers will never purchase services from you again.
• At any one time 22% of all law firm clients are considering switching firms because of problems with their current legal firm.
• For every customer who bothers to complain, there are 26 others who remain silent.
• Typically only 25-30% of a company’s clients are completely satisfied – Such low satisfaction means that 70% or more of the firm’s clients may be open to pitches from competing companies.
• 70% of complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor.
• Each one of your customers has a circle of influence of 250 people .
• 96.7% of unhappy customers never let out even a squeak of dissatisfaction to the organization that has given them bad service. According to research they will tell at least 15 other people, while satisfied ones will tell six at the most.
• Almost 70% of the identifiable reasons why customers left typical companies had nothing to do with the product. The prevailing reason for switching was poor quality of service.

Client Retention:

• It costs about five times as much to attract a new customer as it costs to keep an old one.
  
• Raising customer retention rates by 5% could increase the value of an average customer by 25-100%.
  
• The probability of selling service to a new customer is 1 in 16, while the probability of selling service to a current customer is 1 in 2.
  
• Loyal customers who refer others generate business at very low or no cost.
  
• It’s easier to get present customers to buy 10 percent more than to increase your customer base by 10 percent.
  
• A typical supermarket customer’s worth? $380,000!
  
• The average business loses between 10 percent and 30 percent of its customers each year.
  
• If a credit card company can hold onto another 5% of its customers each year (increasing retention rate from, say, 90 to 95%), then the total lifetime profits from a typical customer will rise, on average, by 75%.
  

Measuring Customer Satisfaction:

• 96-100% of clients interviewed say they approve of client satisfaction surveys.
• 60% of clients interviewed in person will give a firm new business within 60 days of the survey.

Article References:

• The White House Office of Consumer Affairs (http://www.articlesfactory.com/articles/business/5-ways-to-keep-your-customers-coming-back-for-more.html)
• Earl Sasser of Harvard Business School and Merry Neitlich of Extreme Marketing
• TARP (http://www.tarp.com/index.html)
• Eastbridge Consulting Group (http://www.eastbridge.com/news/oi2000/sum007.htm)
• Karl Albrecht (The Service Advantage, Dow Jones, New York, 1990, p. 199)
• Frederick F Reicheld (The Loyalty Effect, Harvard Business School Press, 1996 Chapter 2 – The Economics of Customer Loyalty)
• Forum Corporation research (http://www.crforum.co.uk/)

Here’s the thing. First, you need to take responsibility for the results that are showing up in your life and in your business. Second, you need to roll up your sleeves and learn the tools and methodologies that will help you make pivotal shifts to create the powerful support you need to be able to share the load to allow your business to grow; creating a focused team that works with purpose and motivation.

You cannot afford to waste time and precious financial resources on tolerating bad apples. A non-performing team player is going to cost you a lot more time and money in the long run than you can ever imagine. There is no such thing as a “great company”. There are only “great people”.

THE PROBLEM:
Most small business owners (SBOs) are more “reactive” than “strategic + proactive”…and not just about hiring. What does this mean? Well, it means that most SBOs don’t plan to hire…they just DO when they absolutely feel like they will go nuts if they don’t. Most SBOs don’t plan to create an effective print ad, nope, they just DO it when they get a Yellow Page deal in their email one morning and decide that today is the day to create an ad.

So start by asking yourself:
Would I enthusiastically re-hire every one on my tribe?

If your answer is YES, you are part of a very rare breed. Only about 3% of entrepreneurs or business leaders would “enthusiastically” re-hire every member of their tribe.

If your answer is NO…then here are a few things you can do.

1. Take a deep breath, it’s not the end of the world.
2. Make a list of everyone on your tribe that receives a NO and do the following for each.
3. Look back to when you first hired each person and write down your TOP 5 needs at the time, as well as the TOP 5 reasons why you hired him or her to begin with.
4. Write down the TOP 5 reasons why you would NOT enthusiastically re-hire him or her.
5. Ask yourself if you have been crystal clear on your expectations, accountabilities and measurable results desired.
6. Ask yourself if this tribe member has the necessary DNA to become a real asset for your company?
7. What are 5 key things you can do to become a better leader?

RULE OF THUMB:
Hire Slow. Fire Fast…because you are only as strong as your weakest link.

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