Satisfied Business Customers Do Make Referrals, New Study Finds

CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Superior customer service is essential
for businesses that serve other businesses, especially during a down economy.
Why? Because businesses will refer to other companies if they're happy with
the service they received.

That's according to a new study from The Daniel Group. It found more than 40%
of highly satisfied customers said they had referred another business over the
past six months.

Findings were based upon more than 75,000 customer interviews and presented at
the recent ServicePerformance Conference in Charlotte, N.C. Attendees included
operations and marketing executives from Caterpillar dealers throughout North
America. Other findings included:

- Service consistency is critical for good performance. Dealerships that
customers ranked highest in satisfaction and willingness to refer were the
most profitable dealerships.

- Pay attention to your corporate culture. Dealerships making the most
progress in improving service created an environment more focused on
delivering high quality service and less focused on discussing service
delivery shortcomings.

- A customer's willingness to refer a company is strongly related to the
customer's satisfaction with communication. Communication -- whether it's
conversations, letters, or some other form -- needs to be clear and complete.

"Field service technicians have to feel comfortable talking with customers,"
says president Lynn Daniel. "If technicians worry they'll get punished for
saying the wrong things to a customer, they tend to say nothing at all. That
leads to a perception of poor customer service. When companies focus on what
their technicians are doing well and how to fix the occasional mistake, better
service is the result."

The study also found clients using The Daniel Group's ServicePerformance
program saw the rate of disputes with customers reduced by more than 50% over
a 19-month period. ServicePerformance provides real-time, transaction-focused
feedback that tells companies and their employees what their customers think.
The program uses trained interviewers to contact randomly chosen customers for
short interviews on their recent service experience or product most recently
purchased. ServicePerformance provides quantitative information and
qualitative feedback, including immediate notice of any unresolved problems
with customers.

The Daniel Group, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., provides customer loyalty
strategy, customer retention, and customer loyalty research services to help
you find new customers and strengthen connections with existing ones.
ServicePerformance is a registered trademark of The Daniel Group, Ltd.
Caterpillar is a registered trademark of Caterpillar, Inc.

For more, see www.thedanielgroup.com. call 877-967-4242, or email
info@thedanielgroup.com.

SOURCE The Daniel Group

Mr. Lynn Daniel, +1-877-967-4242, +1-704-367-4242