Key Findings

As part of our latest global consumer study, consumers from 29 countries told us whether they recently had a ‘very poor experience’ with an organization in any of the 20 industries surveyed, and how they changed their spending with the organization after that very poor experience. We also calculated a Sales at Risk Index to understand the percentage of sales at risk due to decreased spending after poor experiences. We found that:

Organizations disappoint in more than 1 in 10 experiences. On average, consumers report that 16% of their recent experiences were ‘very poor,’ ranging from 48% in India to 7% in Japan. Government agencies in South Africa provided the highest rate of poor experiences; 69% of people who had an experience in this industry reported having a ‘very poor’ experience.
Consumers cut spending after bad experiences. At least one-third of consumers reduced their spending after a bad experience with an organization, ranging from 36% of consumers cutting their spending after a bad public utility experience to 60% of consumers reducing their spending after a bad fast food experience. Chinese consumers have the least propensity to reduce their spending, while Colombian consumers are most likely to do so.
Bad experiences put sales at risk. On average, organizations risk losing 8% of their revenue due to very poor experiences. After government agencies, credit card providers have the highest percentage of sales at risk (10.8%), while supermarkets have the least sales at risk (3.3%). The risk is highest for Indian organizations and lowest for those in Japan.