This One Important Factor Drives Both Customer Satisfaction AND Dissatisfaction

When I was in kindergarten, I remember being taught some key social skills. In the classroom, my peers and I were regularly showered with praise when we showed that we were good listeners, demonstrated patience, shared our toys, and expressed kindness to others. 

These skills, we were told, are not only mandatory in school, but they are essential to becoming a grown-up. 

Now, as a Review Response Specialist at Widewail, I spend my days expressing gratitude on behalf of businesses that are complimented for their employees’ kindness, listening skills, and ability to share their time amongst customers. 

My responses to these reviews about employees remind me of those days in kindergarten when people expressed appreciation for the simple things that made me a good person.

Some of this simplicity is lost when considering what will make our customers happy. We think pricing or efficiency are the most important factors influencing our customer’s mood.

And, yes, they are important. But something else is even more important.

We've come to this conclusion after analyzing 10,000 customer reviews.

In other words, the customer’s experience with the staff at the dealership had the most sway on whether or not the customer had a positive experience. When employees were “patient,” “knowledgeable,” and “courteous,” customers noticed. And they left a review. 

In the above review, we see that Morgan’s friendliness, willingness to help and patience was important to the reviewer. The overall quality of the customer’s interaction with Morgan was positive because Morgan demonstrated these basic social skills. 

It may not be inherently surprising that customers appreciate pleasant experiences with employees, but it does emphasize an important and sometimes secondary element to business.

To further demonstrate this, let’s look at an example of a dissatisfied customer.

In the above Yelp review, the customer is frustrated because Farhad didn’t show up after he said he would, and then Joe was inattentive and he complained. As we can see, the reviewer’s basic needs were not met. And this determined the quality of their experience, giving the customer those “bad vibes.”

Your customers will typically be quite happy – and likely to leave a review – whenever your employees demonstrate these standard relationship skills we’ve all learned and practiced since our childhood. 

Customers’ positive reviews not only show us what satisfies customers, but they also tell us which qualities we value as a society. Whether handled internally or via an online review management service, a review response strategy is integral for businesses of any size. 

It’s the simple things that are most important to making someone’s experience at your business a great one. A little bit of kindness and willingness to help from an employee will mean a lot to a customer…maybe even enough to write a review.