Impact of Dissatisfiers

I have written extensively about the very significant difference between satisfiers and dissatisfiers. I have made the point that customers will tolerate a temporary decline in performance of a company process or product that is a satisfier (such as the temperature of a hamburger at McDonalds that is not really warm), and continue to do business with the company. However, when a customer experiences a decline in a dissatisfier, the impact can be immediate loss of that customer (such as a finding a dirty restroom at the McDonalds).

This difference has been validated by a survey of 500 Australian adults by StollzNow Research. On the positive side they found that 28 percent of consumers will remain loyal to companies that provide them with the best service. But consider the impact of the dissatisfiers.
1. 79 percent of consumers have stopped doing business with an organization because of a bad experience (you can bet it had to do with a dissatisfier).
2. 71 percent of consumers tell others about their negative experience with the aim of preventing other consumers from doing business with the company at fault.

The primary reason I am using this wonderful example of the impact of dissatisfiers is to point out that most surveys do not have the ability to sort out the satisfiers from the dissatisfiers. Companies can recover from a decline in performance of a product or service which is known to be a satisfier but will begin to lose customers immediately when a product or service that is a dissatisfier declines.

The bottom line is that companies must be aware of what the dissatisfiers are. They must be ever vigilant to manage the dissatisfiers because of the immediacy of the impact on their business.