It is quite upsetting when a firm loses its customers, especially when they cannot really figure out the reasons behind. There are few companies who believe only in one-time engagement, but most are those who have firmly set their belief in long-term relationship with their customers and clients. If it is not there then get ready for the negative word-of-mouth flooding all around, particularly in social media.
For instance, you visited a restaurant and the food wasn’t good. The next step you are most likely to do is (perhaps) complain to the manager who is supposed to apologize and take appropriate measures, such as not taking your money, so that you remember how cooperative they were. If this happens you may consider it to give a second chance. But what if he misbehaved, instead of apologizing? You will never visit that place again and warn to others as well since you know that the possibility of rectifying the mistake and improvising itself is highly unlikely.
Likewise, there are lots of reasons why customers never come back to buy a firm’s products or services. Below are the few possible cases explaining why a company has lost its image in the eyes of its buyers:
Why customers never come back?
(i) Poor quality/working: No matter what product or service an organization is offering, it ought to be great at quality and functioning. If it is not so, get ready to make an exit in the world of business. This also involves maintaining the same status and working even after months and years. It could be improved as per demands but one cannot afford to compromise in terms of its quality.
For example, think about Dairy Milk chocolate that has the same flavor since years. Although it had come up with lots of different packing and some additional mixed and matched flavors, the base remains the same. Despite being such a reputed brand it did face cases of worms inside the chocolate packing since it was a normal wrap once upon a time; it then started to seal it entirely. The consumers’ trust had regained since then onwards.
(ii) High cost: It is practical to not go out of budget. If the goods are costly one would obviously not purchase it. Even if somebody did and had a terrible experience they can never trust it again. Moreover, sometimes the organization increases the cost of a product drastically once it gains the popularity. In such a case, purchasing products would be a distant dream for many. One may argue on this context that there are elite groups of people who least care about the budget, I would still say that they would too first concentrate on the features being offered. If they also feel that the competitive brand has a significantly high count of characteristics, most of them would dismiss it as well.
(iii) Outdated technology: Some companies are not flexible enough to update themselves along with the growing technology. They are then no longer capable to stand in front of other firms that do make changes with time. For instance, an online retail store needs to update in order to handle its growing big data. If it does not do so, it may face the consequences like slow server, server not responding, serving generating errors while purchasing something online, and so on. This extensively repels the customers.
(iv) Noncompetitive marketing: If a company is not flexible enough to adapt to changes like jumping from traditional to Digital Marketing, OR keeping a track of both and dedicatedly making people aware about your brand; its statistics would have a negative impact and its sales would go down, regardless of its previous strategies and sky-high sales. This means that marketing is extremely necessary and the ways how it is done also modifies with time.
(v) Poor response: If the customer support department did not listen carefully to the customers’ grievances and/or behaved in a very harsh manner, OR did not respond at all, why do you think a person should ever return? Naturally, an individual wouldn’t expect a bad behavior at any cost and wouldn’t tolerate if it happens even once! Poor customer care staff is the biggest culprit behind the defamation of a company.
If you notice that your customers are unsatisfied with the products/services you offered, try to communicate with them more often, recognize what went wrong, and fix it. If possible, always ask a genuine feedback/suggestions after a few weeks or months of their purchase. They should not sense that you don’t bother at all once the purchase is carried. This could be done using a small phone call or an email.
(vi) Inability to learn from mistakes: Even after practically knowing everything, if an organization is scared enough to make changes and take controlled risks, it won’t be succeeding ever. Once you know the reasons behind why customers never come back to buy your products or services you ought to take steps to improvise.
The lost reputation can be regained back regardless how mercilessly your customers might have bashed your brand, with proper management. Even big organizations witnessed countless failures, and so, it is quite feasible to take measures, sooner or later!