Bank of America has more than 20 Million account holders, and losing one, is not all that detrimental to the financial giant. But if 30% of those who had an opinion about Bank of America that represents 6 million account holders electing to deposit their funds elsewhere and that would be a significant loss for the bank.  One ex-client of Bank of America publishing his experience with their customer service one ex-client stated; “The B of A has the worst customer service. So called the account managers can bang the phone on you without thinking twice. I called to request the interest rate review/reduction which started at 10.9% and was increased to 22% without my consent. The account manager told me to consider the home equity loan and talk to their mortgage department to pay off my loan. I consider it not solving the problem and trying to avoid the issue.”

Published opinions from previous account holders with Wells-Fargo place them among the worst for customer service. “Wells Fargo customer service is unbelievably bad! If they charge any fees on your accounts due to their own mistakes, and you don't find out within 2 months, they will tell you 'sorry, you should have read the fine print.'”

Sprint and Verizon, both huge cellular phone service providers, would likewise suffer. 22% of Verizon's 60.7 million subscribers is 13,354,000. The average monthly cost for most cellular services is billed at $77 per month.. Verizon's customer service could be costing them $102,825,8,000 per month in early termination, and unrenewed contracts.

In this light, not even Wal-Mart is invincible. Even with 138 million shoppers per week 23% is 31,740,000 unsatisfied consumers, who on average spend approximately $200 per week. Should all 31,740,000 customers take their business elsewhere, Wal-Mart stands to lose $6,348,000,000 per week.

Art Waller, Regional Department Head for Utah State University points to recent findings that a typical business will only hear from 4% of its dissatisfied customers.  96% will say nothing and simply take their business elsewhere. Of this 96%, 68% perceive an attitude of indifference in the owner, manager or employee and will never reveal their dissatisfaction.

“A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to ten people about their problem. One in five will tell 20. It takes 12 positive service incidents to make up for one negative incident. Seven out of ten complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor. If you resolve it on the spot, 95 percent will do business with you again.”

Comcast Subscribers total approximately 14.7 million. If 4,410,000 dissatisfied customers (30%) were to tell 10 people about their customer service experience, 44,100,000 others will have heard the unfavorable mention of customer service provided by Comcast.

Companies on the verge of going belly up do not give credence to the impact it's employees have with their customers.  Poor customer service is more devastating than a lousy first impression or a customer who has taken their business elsewhere, credibility is lost.

Companies renowned for their outstanding customer service, Amazon.com, USAA, Publix Super Markets, Zappos.com, Ace Hardware and Hewlett-Packard, have survived the recession,  investing in cheap technology to improve service, holding their employees accountable. Call Recording, is one of the technological advances being utilized by employers not only as a valuable training tool, but as a means of following through with the expectations and customer service of their employees.  Those businesses at the top of their game place value in the quality of their employees and customer service representatives, over quantity.  The out-come of which is obvious in the loyalty of their customers, their referrals and their ability to survive.

There is not, and never will be a more effective marketing tool than a referral from a satisfied customer. With the rising cost of advertising, word of mouth advertising is an invaluable resource that  no business can take for granted. Art Waller says “The average business spends six times more to attract new customers than it does to keep old ones. Yet customer loyalty is in most cases worth 10 times the price of a single purchase.”