Here are some SHOCKING statistics regarding dissatisfied clients from a study done by the Research Institute of America for the White House Office of Consumer Affairs and brought to my attention by Jay Abraham.

• The average business will hear nothing from 96% of unhappy clients who experience rude or discourteous treatment.
• 90% of clients who are dissatisfied with the service they receive will not come back or buy again.
• To add more to this, EACH of those unhappy clients will tell his or her experience to at least nine other people (and now with Yelp!, the entire world can know).
• For every complaint received, the average company has 26 clients with problems, six of which are serious!
• Only 4% of unhappy clients bother to complain, up to 70% will do business with the organization again if their complaint is resolved. That 70% can go up to 95% if the client feels the problem was fixed quickly.
• It takes 12 positive incidents to make up for one negative incident in the eyes of the client.

No one is perfect and stuff happens. Maybe your business was really busy and didn’t have time to adequately deal with all the customer’s questions. Maybe someone in your staff was having a bad day and didn’t give a client the customer service that was expected. Maybe the client expected more and felt that you did not live up to your end of that expectation. Maybe there was a problem with the delivery, paperwork, or product and the client felt you did not address it immediately. Maybe the client did not feel “the love” from your business that day. Maybe Murphy’s Law kicked in and was having a field day with your business. There are about a bazillion reasons for what happened and why the client “felt” dissatisfied. A lot of business owners have no idea why the client stopped coming to their business and using their services. Those businesses probably would never have guessed that THEY were the reason.

All right, something went wrong, your client is not happy, they are no longer coming to your business, and you have no idea why. This is a standard Lose-Lose scenario. That sucks! So what do you do? How can you right this unknown wrong? You gotta call your client and ask them. Communication is the key!

No matter where you go, you will hear that communication is one of the root problems from failing marriages to declining business sales. This especially applies to your business. If a client is no longer coming to your business, call them and find out why? Let them know that you were thinking about them and you missed them. Be sincere. But most importantly, ask them if there is anything you did wrong or if you offended them somehow. Gosh, I cannot emphasize how important this is! Imagine you just stepped out of the restroom and are dragging half the roll of toilet paper out with you. Wouldn’t you want to know? Same with your business! If there were an issue that your client found offense to, wouldn’t you want to know about it? Wouldn’t you want to fix it? Wouldn’t you want to address it? Chances are if one client felt it, then there are about another 25 that are having or had that similar experience.

I think a successful business creates amazing experiences for their clients. When you contact these long lost clients about their experiences with your business find out about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Strive to get as much customer feedback as possible to better align your business with the demands of your clients. How will your clients feel about you contacting them? Most will appreciate it and it will give them a chance to vent out their experience to you if it was negative. To ask one their opinion is a form of flattery and puts your client on a pedestal. Who doesn’t want to give their opinion on anything? Ask your client, don’t ignore the situation.

Ignoring a complaint is probably one of the worst things you can do in terms of customer service. If you are willing to hear them out, they will appreciate you. They will appreciate that you care. They will tell other people that even though the experience wasn’t great for whatever reason, you went out of your way to make it great. Knowing that 80% of unsatisfied clients would come back to doing business with you if you addressed their issue should be a good feeling. And who doesn’t want to feel great while making clients smile and increasing your sales. Win-Win! So go out there and reach out and touch a client that you haven’t seen in a while. Find out, “What’s up?” In the business world, “No news can be horrible news.”

A business can be like a boat. Losing a client is like having a small hole in your boat. It can be hard to get where you want to go if you are constantly bailing water out of your boat just to stay afloat. Plug the holes by figuring out what is causing them. By doing so you will not only have a healthy boat, but also you will better enjoy the journey and meet some great friends along the way. A little bit of kindness, a dash of creativity, and a whole lot of work can take you a long way. So get going and find out what people are saying about your business and then just row, row, row your boat……