Are You Asking Your Customers Why They Left?

It’s tough to ask someone why they left.  You may get answers that you don’t really want to hear.  Are your prices too high?  Is your post-sales service come up short?  Is the product you are sell having major malfunctions?  Hopefully the answer isn’t yes to all of those questions.  Getting answers to why customers leave will help you ATTRACT and KEEP the right customers.  There isn’t a product in the world that is universally for everyone.  Your product is obviously no different.  You want to know what you need to do keep the right customers.  Here are a few things to consider when designing a VOC for customers who are no longer your customer.

·         Allow customers to rank the reasons for leaving. 

·         Make the customer drill down on the top issue.  If it’s price, what about the price?

·         Don’t be afraid to ask if they went with another product and what product they went with.  This gives you a better idea of where you competition is coming from.  We found we don’t have to worry about firms that are the same size as we are with similar sales channels.  It’s the smaller players we have to be wary of.

·         Let the customer vent about what you did wrong.  The candid feedback is important to hear.

·         Be sure that you know what the top reasons are for your KEY customers.  Since your product isn’t for everyone, make sure you know your customer profile so you know that you are keeping the right kind of customers.  Your overall top reason may be one thing but you may be losing customers who aren’t going to be successful because of price or service expectation and those customers may be diluting your results.  I look for what customers from key demographics are saying so that I know how I can fine tune our product offering.  On the flip side you could determine that product expansion is key to capture and keep the customers who weren’t the right customers before.