Why Customers Stop Buying

A few years back, the U.S. government conducted a study on "Why Customers Stop Buying." We’ve all had that experience. Customers, who have been with us for either a short or long period of time, all of a sudden stop buying. The survey asked "Why?" and here are the results:

• 1% of the customers who stop buying die. It happens; it’s not pleasant when it does, but it’s only 1%.
• 3% move away. Again, we’ve all experienced this, especially in the U.S., which is a very mobile society. Businesses relocate; people and families relocate.
• 5% form other business relationships. For example, a client could come to you and say, "I’ve enjoyed doing business with you, but my son/daughter/wife/husband (pick one) just went to work for your competition and I’ll be throwing my business their way. Or, it could be that the contact person you deal with just left the company, a new person, with a whole set of different relationships and contacts, took his/her place and you’re on the outside looking in.

  While this only represents 5% of the customers you lose, it points up the necessity of making sure your client relationships are with executives who are as close to the top as possible. The reason being: these people change jobs far less often than middle managers or other lower level decision makers.

• 9% leave for competitive reasons. This usually means price. For all of you who think that hordes of customers abandon you because of price issues, notice that it’s only 9%! Better yet, are those the kind of customers you really want? If someone is going to stop buying from you because they can get it cheaper somewhere else, what do you think happens when a third company comes along with a better price?
• 14% stop buying because of product dissatisfaction. More often than not, this usually means the customer bought something that didn’t fill their needs; and whose fault do you think that is? If you said the salesperson, you’re right.

  You’re better off turning a customer away, than selling them something that’s not right for them. This way you build trust and leave the door open to come back when you feel you have something that fills their needs. Selling something that’s totally wrong for the customer can close the door on you forever.

• 68% of the customers you lose, you lose because of poor or indifferent ATTITUDE, on the part of you or someone else in your company. Amazing! 68% of the customers you lose leave for reasons well within your control to prevent. You never had to lose them. It was probably because someone was nasty; or didn’t return a phone call; didn’t follow up; or, better yet, took a customers complaint and either ignored it or refused to fix it. By the way, resolving a customer complaint quickly and efficiently will save 95% of the customers who complain. Heck, just listening to a customer’s complaint will salvage more than 50% of them.