Things that Customers Hate (Why They Don’t Return)

Customers are the bread and butter of any business. Without them, sales wouldn’t be generated and profit wouldn’t be gained. Thus, every business owners and marketers should learn how to attract potential customers and retain existing customers. If you own a business and you’re marketing it, you should know the things that customers hate. You should do something to prevent your clients and customers from disliking your business, products, services, salespersons and other things that may scare them away. The following is a list of those things that your customers hate and reasons why they don’t return to do business again with you. Let this serve as your guidance. They may not sound enjoyable, but enjoy the lessons!

1. Salespersons who are not listening and not paying attention. You have clearly ordered an orange juice drink, but you were given an iced tea. Then your name is Mr. Robert, and the receptionist called you Ma’am. And the most annoying one is when you are calling the saleslady ten times and she isn’t paying any attention. Though we sometimes need to understand that sales personnel are busy attending to a lot of customers, they should have implemented a good system to politely accommodate their customers.

2. Too much accommodation or putting customers under pressure to buy. If lacking accommodation will scare your customers, too much accommodation may also have the same effect. There are some customers and buyers who don’t like sales personnel approaching them when they are not called, especially if these personnel are giving unsolicited sales talk to pressure customers to buy their products.

3. No hello, no thank you, or even just a simple smile. Customers hate arrogant salespersons; they also don’t like faces who give you a frown. If your competitors are providing warm customer service, you should have the reason to be worried – your existing customers might just leave you and instead go to your competitors.

4. Gossiping and backstabbing. This is one of the things that customers really hate. This destroys customers’ trust and confidence, as well as their feeling of security. It’s even more annoying to hear personnel in the corner laughing at you although it’s not really you whom they are laughing at. That is why it’s important that personnel behave us they were trained with good customer service.

5. Unfair treatment (VIP). I remember one restaurant in our hometown which I don’t want to mention the name. I and my co-workers tried their indeed tasty dishes. But inside the restaurant, we waited so long, hungry and ignored, until we get accommodated. The reason? Those waiters are prioritizing the customers whom they’ve known for giving huge tips. I never tried to visit the place again. The last time I heard about the place – already closed!

6. Inconsistencies. Inconsistencies may exist in different forms. They can be inconsistent business policies, inconsistent time schedules, or inconsistent quality of goods and services offered. Whatever kind of inconsistency it is, they all annoyed customers. People want to get what they expect. If they get something that is below their expectations, you know that the next thing will be… disappointment.

7. Getting too much private information. It’s good that companies and their customers get to know each other. However, this should be communicated and understood clearly and reasonably. Customers hate it when they are asked with too much private and personal information, especially when this requirement is not justifiable and it causes unreasonable inconvenience on the part of the customers. Unless you’re an entity that is required by the government to collect data from customers, such as banks and other financial institutions, don’t waste your customers’ time and cause them inconvenience they don’t deserve. And when you ask their privacy, be sure to protect the privacy you get from them.

8. Bad products. Well, this is very obvious and no need to explain further.

9. Unreasonable price. This may scare your customers away, and it doesn’t matter if your price is high or low. You should understand that customers might back off if your price is set too high for the quality you are providing. Likewise, they may also go away if your price is too cheap, causing them to think that your products don’t offer any value, particularly when it comes to foods, drugs and other life-essential products.

10. Poor or no post-sale support at all. Sellers, marketers and salespersons should not only become friendly during the selling process, but they must also be helpful after the sale. Every customer needs customer support from the process of negotiation to the process of helping them when the products they have purchased encountered troubles. Customers hate businesses that are only good during sales talk and very poor during post sales support.

 

Other things that customers hate

11. Offering products that are out of stock or not available. Put some note in your menu that those delicious dishes are not available!

12. Not issuing invoices or official receipts (OR). Are you operating a legitimate business or not?

13. Asking for smaller bills. Some customers hate this because they will pay smaller bills if they have them in the first place.

14. Badmouthing the competition. Instead of telling us bad things about your competitors, tell us the good things about your business.

15. Long lines and they cannot manage it. Customers don’t want to waste their precious time. Hence, improve your system and logistic.

16. Making customers feel that they are disturbance. Don’t take your lunch in your workplace and look to us as if we disturb you and your co-employees when we enter your premises. Also, what do you mean by “please observe silence, professionals are working”?

17. Unclean and unsafe environment. That’s way too scary, especially when your business is a restaurant or a medical clinic.

18. Excessive jokes and non-sense talks. That’s too noisy and may not be appropriate at all times.

19. Disoriented sales personnel. Isn’t it annoying when you ask a salesperson about the product he is selling, and he doesn’t know the answer?

20. Lying and exaggerating. There is nothing more annoying than a salesperson who is making his customer looks like a fool.

So how about you my fellow customer… what irritates you as a customer?