Answer: 10% to 25% more.
More than 70% of potential clients say they’d be willing to pay as much as 10% more for a product or service if a company exceeded their expectations. And more than a third of buyers would be willing to pay as much as 25% more if the company provided superior service after the sale.
Also, according to a Strativity Group study of 2,000 people’s buying habits:
- satisfied customers are three times more likely to continue doing business with the same company for 10 years or more
- those who’ve had a negative buyer experience are 10 times more likely to stop doing business with a company within a year, and
- once jilted, 52 percent of respondents said they’d only be willing to continue their business if a discount of 5 percent or more was offered.
The three things customers value most in a sales rep are:
- the ability to resolve problems effectively,
- common sense and
- the ability to consistently exceed expectations.
“The initial assumption that we had was that customer loyalty is dead, that the only loyalty is to price,” said Strativity CEO Lior Arussy. “But it’s not only about price sensitivity. The verdict from the consumers is very clear: if we see an exceptional customer experience, we’ll pay more for it, we’ll stay longer, and we’re going to give you more business.”
2 Responses to “Question: What’s Great Client Service Worth?”
Carol Shulman
We have also learned that setting expectations is key. In the process of doing so, you find out what they client was actually expecting, can give that a reality check (sometimes clients have expectations that simply can’t be met, no matter how good you are), and you can know how high the client has set the bar before you even get to work.
We find that at least 80% of the time a client is unhappy, we can trace that back to our failure to set expectations properly or understand the expectations the client already had.
Kevin Phillips
The amazing thing is this: Most people believe that exceeding client expectation is a key to winning repeat business, creating a referral network that really nets new clients and most important of all — creating value.
What many accounting professionals fail to learn is how to listen to clients so that they can know what exceeding their expectations really mean. What makes an accountant a “professional” is not technical competency. Technical competence makes a competent accountant.
A professional is a competent accountant who has learned to how to listen to the real needs of clients, and after listening, consistently exceeds their expectations.
You cannot exceed expectations you do not know.