The customer satisfaction behavior curve demonstrates how customers behave according to their ratings of overall customer satisfaction from their complete custtmer satisfaction experience. The ten domains of satisfaction are combined to form an overall number on a scale of one ot ten.
Some significant insights from our customer satisfaction research indicate that return ands recommend rate starts fairly high (7.9) in this overall rating of customer satisfaction. At 7.9 one in five customers will return to buy again or recommend the supplier to others. Return and recommend behaviros can increase dramatically to a level of 1600% with the combined referral effects possible at the 10.0 level.
World class is a term given to suppliers who rate at least a 9.24 overall satisfaction level of higher.
On the negative return and recommend side of the curve, actual negative behavior by customers (will not buy again or pass along negative referrals to others) starts at 4.2 and below to exceed 1000% in negative word of mouth creation. Suppliers become 'known as the worst' wen overall satisfaction drops below 2.0.
The zone of customer indifference spans the range from 4.3 to 7.8 and describes a level of customer satisfaction based on convenience for the customer, value-shopping, one time buying or 'testing' a supplier, or monopoly-type customer-supplier relationships where customers don't really have a choice of suppliers (the post office etc.). In the Zone of Customer Indifference, customers have no particular loyalty and are vulnerable to being stolen by a competitor, especially when the competitors overall satisfaction levels are higher than 7.8.
