This article answers the question: What are the top 10 reasons customers will stop doing business with you or leave for another brand?.

The one-sentence answer would be: Customers leave a brand primarily because of rude or indifferent employees, inconsistent or unresolved support, and experiences that waste their time or make them feel unappreciated.

The Top 10 Reasons Customers Leave a Brand or Business

How can we make our customer experience better? That’s a fair question, and there are plenty of ways to do so.

But rather than tell you all the things to do, I’m going to tell you what not to do, because even if you do what I tell you to do, any of the 10 reasons below will send your seemingly happy customers to the competition.

In my State of Customer Service and CX annual report, we asked customers a simple question: How likely would you be to switch companies or leave a brand after experiencing any of the following bad customer experiences?

The list included many different reasons. Here are the top 10 that combined the “likely” and “very likely” answers with a comment about each of them:

1. Rudeness and apathy from an employee: Nobody wants to do business with employees who don’t seem to care about them.
2. Inconsistent information: If you call for help and the agent offers a solution that doesn’t work, so you end up calling back and getting a different answer, then you have received inconsistent information that creates a lack of confidence in the company.
3. Nobody returns your message: Not returning a message sends the message, “We don’t care.”
4. Feeling that the company doesn’t value your time: When you make customers wait for what they feel is an unreasonable amount of time, be it on hold, in person, or for information, you are showing a lack of respect. If you are going to make a customer wait, then tell them so they know what to expect. 
5. The inability to connect with someone from customer support: This is summed up in one word: friction. Don’t make it hard to get customer support.
6. A bad customer experience: I’m surprised this wasn’t at the top of the list. After all, any one of these reasons falls under the heading of “A Bad Customer Experience.”
7. Inconsistent experiences: Inconsistency destroys confidence, and without confidence, why would a customer come back?
8. An issue, question, or complaint requires multiple interactions to resolve: Not having smart people who are empowered to take care of the customer the first time is a mistake that sends customers to the competition.
9. Having to repeat information multiple times: This is tied to the prior reason. If there are multiple interactions, that means the customer has to repeat their story over and over. This can usually be resolved by having competently trained employees who are empowered to make good, customer-focused decisions.
10. Being transferred multiple times: The reason for this is the same as the last two. Being transferred forces the customer to repeat their story, something they obviously don’t enjoy. And again, the resolution is properly trained, empowered employees who eliminate or mitigate the need to transfer the customer to someone else.

Well, now you know what not to do. Every one of these reasons are within your control. The question is no longer what’s driving your customers away. It is what are you going to do about it?

And by the way, if you would like the full research report, go to www.CustomerExperienceResearch.com to download it. It’s free, and you don’t even have to give me your email address. I’m confident you’ll find ideas that will make your customers say, “I’ll be back!”

Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.