To be precise, according to our research, any customer service interaction is four times more likely to drive disloyalty than to drive loyalty (see figure 1.5).

When you stay at a Motel 6 property, what do you expect? A low price, a clean room, and some baseline of decently acceptable service, but nothing like what you’d get at a Ritz-Carlton. And that’s perfectly fine. Expectations, after all, are relative.

according to our research, any customer service interaction is four times more likely to drive disloyalty than to drive loyalty

stand in line at the bank to use the ATM, but know full well there’s a teller inside the bank who’s ready to help you. Most customers don’t just like self-service,

Customers who attempt to self-serve but are forced to pick up the phone are 10 percent more disloyal than customers who were able to resolve their issue in their channel of first choice (see figure 2.2).

low effort beats channel choice by a landslide. We found that a whopping 84 percent of customers simply want their issue resolved as quickly and easily as possible—and

You could also visit a twenty-four-hour clinic, or even go the emergency room. But increasingly, what do most parents do in this situation? We turn to an online resource, such as WebMD.

defining loyalty in terms of three specific behaviors: repurchase (customers continue to buy from your company), share of wallet (customers buy more from you over time), and advocacy (customers say good things about your company to family, friends, coworkers, even to strangers).

Once you’re consistently meeting the expectations of the majority of your customers, you’ve already done the most economically valuable thing you can do.