I was recently reading a Harvard Business School case study on Starbucks, it talked about many facets of the Starbucks success. The part that interested me most was the difference between satisfied customers and highly satisfied customers.

For years, many businesses have aimed for customer satisfaction. However, the pot-of-gold is in the highly satisfied category—getting each and every customer to not only be loyal, but also recommend your brand.

As you wrestle with the payoff of enhancing your customer service training investment, consider these findings in the study:

The satisfied customer visits 4.3 times per month, spends £8.12 and is a customer for 4.4 years.
The highly satisfied customer visits 7.2 times per month, spends £14.84 and is a customer for 8.3 years.

Doing the maths, the satisfied customer spends £97.44 per year and is worth £428.74 over the span of their 4.4 year customer life. The highly satisfied customer spends £178.08 per year—an increase of £178.08 or 82 percent more per year—and is worth £1,478.06 over the span of their 8.3 year customer life.

As you see the most powerful force here is compound interest. In our case, the most powerful force is getting customers to be highly satisfied — an 82 percent sales increase if you can move each customer from satisfied to highly satisfied. Show me another inexpensive (if not free) way to increase your sales 82 percent!

Since many of your customers are already in the highly satisfied category, you won’t see an 82 percent increase. However, reallocate your efforts (and pounds)—stop trying to attract new customers or get the unsatisfied ones to satisfied. The big lever is moving the customers up to highly satisfied and your sales will follow.

Would you like to see whether or not your team are trying to convert the satisfied to highly satisfied? Why not use our team of mystery shoppers from any part of the UK.

MCE Team.