In a recent blog post on Twisted Image’s Six Pixels of Separation, “When Customers Attack, They’re Not Doing It Online”, Mitch Joel looks at a recent Harris Interactive study that shows us that 7% of consumers who encountered some sort of difficulty while they were trying to conduct an online transaction then turned to a blog or a social network to vent. Now, I couldn’t find the study on the Harris site, but I’ll take Mitch’s word for it and assume it deals strictly with online transactions.
Then Mitch goes on to say
Admit it, you thought it would be higher.
No. I won’t admit to that. I’d have thought it would be lower.
He then states
All in all, it’s still a little surprising how low these numbers seem.
No, it’s not surprising to me.
Sometimes I think we forget that most people out there aren’t necessarily all that familiar with blogs. Or online forums. Sure, they may read a blog or two now and then. And they may turn to a product review site when applicable. But that doesn’t mean that they play a proactive roll in contributing to these platforms. Just as we so often see only a few people get involved in all sorts of membership organizations and groups, we will also see what I would assume to be a smaller percentage of contributing complainers. For most, it is not a priority. It’s not part of someone’s nature or usual routine. 
First of all, someone has to know of a blog (or have one) from which they can either post an entry or write a comment. Or they have to make some sort of comment on a their profile page, be it on Facebook or MySpace or wherever. These take thought processes that go beyond quickly blowing off steam. It involves formulating an articulate series of thoughts, written in a coherent manner. It often takes a considerable amount of time. It can be a bother. It’s often not worth the effort. It’s much easier to vent to a friend, a coworker, a relative.
That’s why, according to the study, three-quarters of the people complained in person, and half complained to someone they know via the phone. Face to face and over the phone are quick easy established means of communication.
Why am I bringing this up? Because that 7% is actually high. Seven out of one hundred dissatisfied customers (or potential customers) are unhappy enough to take assertive action to coneptualize their thoughts and intentionally let others know. And not in a heat of the moment aspect. This could be somewhat alarming.
That’s because many organizations still don’t have their acts together online. User interface is a mess. Catalogs make no sense. Online forms that they must fill out can be burdensome. An online store may not remember who someone is. Sometimes it may not be the company’s fault. A credit card may not go through because of a technical glitch on the credit company’s end. And not everyone is really ecommerce savvy.
So, yes, it’s alarming. That’s because if a company processes 600,000 transactions a month and 2% of them create problems for their customers (not all of the problems necessarily sabotage the transaction), that means you’ve got 12,000 problems. Of that 7% complain in a blog or on a network. That’s 840 people. Per month. Getting my calculator out…that’s 10,800 online complaints per year. Yikes. That’s a lot.
Now Mitch does go on to say that
Putting it in writing and online gives the complaint a permanent digital legacy (one that has an ongoing conversation around it)…So, while the percentage may be significantly lower than telling someone in person, the effects of the online complaint probably have a much more dire long-term and overall negative brand effect.
That’s the key point. He’s spot on. The fact that 7% of unsatisfied customers are making that extra effort - which as we see could end up meaning thousands of people - can pose untold problems for today’s companies. Those proactive seven percenters are could easily be an alarming amount in both real numbers and in influence.
No Comments » Posted on October 21st, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn
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