People Are Seeking Revenge for Bad Customer Service

The customer experience has taken a nosedive in recent years, and many people are so angered by poor customer service they are seeking revenge.

A new study found that consumer complaints are up, and dissatisfaction with products and services are to blame for an uptick in consumers’ desire to get revenge against under-delivering companies.

Wall Street Journal reports 74 percent of consumers have had problems with a retailer’s products or the customer service they’ve received.

According to a study of customer satisfaction by the National Customer Rage Survey, 66 percent of customers were unhappy in 2020. When the study was first conducted in 1976, only 32 percent of consumers were dissatisfied with products or services they received.

Wall Street Journal reports companies are cutting costs by de-prioritizing quality in an effort to maximize profits, which has led to widespread customer dissatisfaction.

Over the years, shopper dissatisfaction has trended negative at an alarming rate. At the same time, our ability to make our shopping and customer service woes known has never been easier.

Angry consumers want revenge and are getting it by complaining in person or publicly online. Social media has become a podium for many to express their frustration and share their negative experiences with the masses.

According to Wall Street Journal, 9 percent of outraged Americans have sought revenge against companies by publicly complaining with the intention to cause harm.

Meanwhile, customers who want to “settle scores” are no longer buying from companies they feel dissatisfied with, and are turning to competing brands instead.

Other actions consumers are taking include boycotting or withholding their recommendations for specific brands or companies in hopes of impacting the business’s finances and credibility. Some are even taking legal action.

“It’s the idea of, if you as a company don’t really seem to care, well then I’m going to take to the streets,” Scott Broetzmann, president and chief executive of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting, told Wall Street Journal.

“It’s costing companies a lot of money in future business, but there’s also the cost of servicing really angry customers. If you think about the average number of contacts that really angry customers are making, each time they contact a business, that costs the business money,” Broetzmann added.