We have recently discussed the most frequent presence of marketing and promotion and that is word of mouth. We know that happy customers are likely to spread the word to their friends and family of how happy they are with your business. Now, there is the question of how many existing and former customers are out there with an unhappy memory of working with your company, either in a purchase, customer service or other way.

Consider the one person that may have only given you a 1 out of 5 stars directly on your site or Facebook page in response to their interaction with you. Think of how many of those unhappy customers would have cut off their communications with you completely and immediately. They would not have returned to your site or your social media page at all. Therefore, those negative responses are either floating around out their waiting to be told to others or reported otherwise.

Source: leeresources.com

Consider the next digital path, where the calculated additional 26 unhappy customers may be located occasionally and come upon the name of your company by change. There are others’ social media pages where you may be mentioned, Yelp, BBB, Angie’s List, Craigslist and many more business reviews, gossip and simple conversational pages.

There is much to consider in knowing that many of those unhappy customers may not say anything loudly, but they do tend to gossip. If questions of where to shop for a product or service in your particular industry, one of those silent and unhappy customers will shout out a predominant NO in relation to the name of your business.

Therefore, we return to the fact that there is always an important value to customer service and following up with customers after a purchase to make sure that all is going well. Remember that there is always the chance for error or mistake, and that things can be corrected and brought back to a more pleasant relationship with the customer. You always have the ability to apologize and correct the issue, while making offers for the future in order to help bring their business back into your doors when more is needed. That way these customers may always remember that they were unhappy with something at first, but it will further and more strongly be seen that you are a company that holds to customer service and care, making sure that things are always coming to a positive end.

So, remember that those negative feelings and messages could be out there… silence doesn’t always mean a happy customer, and there is nothing to keep you from continuing along with customer service.