EXCLUSIVE: Customer dissatisfaction a risk worth almost £4 billion, study warns
Customers that have a good experience in a QSR spend more per visit.
Customer dissatisfaction within the quick service restaurant (QSR) space is posing a near £4 billion risk for British foodservice operators.
Data from The NPD Group revealed that customer satisfaction in eating out-of-home rose to 74% in 2018 compared to the past two years. Some QSR segments also scored higher than others when it comes customer satisfaction, with pizza and ethnic categories coming out on top.
However, the global information company says there are over one billion QSR visits a year that are not rated as either Excellent nor Very Good, with 26% of said visits displaying “some level of dissatisfaction.” Thus, NPD says they “should be viewed as ‘at risk’”, as they are rated within the bottom three (neutral or negative rating).
NPD's data also claims that 6% of all dissatisfied customers will not expect revisits within the next month, explaining that current and future spend could instead go to rivals.
Customers that have an ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’ experience in a QSR spend +13% more per visit on average than neutral or dissatisfied customers.
“We all know the signs of a satisfied customer. They smile and chat and, when they go home, they make plans to visit you again soon. So operators naturally work hard to boost customer satisfaction. But there’s a dark side to this and it carries a £4 billion price tag," NPD Group Insights Director Dominic Allport said.
"So the message to operators is clear: make sure you control the risk of a dissatisfied customer as much as you can as efforts in this area can reap rewards.”
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