Be Of Service: Why Marketers Must Pay Attention To Full Range Of Customer Experiences

Yesterday I wrote about repeated TV ads not just causing annoyance, but negatively impacting purchase decisions.

Today, I continue the exploration into the mind of who MediaPost calls “the crabby customer” — the one who, despite all that advertisers and marketers do, ultimately have a bad customer experience.

“Email teams noticing a lagging response should look beyond their latest creative to place the blame,” MediaPost says. “It may not be their fault.”

The sentiment is in response to Qualtrics XM’s 2025 Consumer Trends report and its findings that more than half (53%) of the customers will cut back their spending or simply walk after a bad experience, up 2.7% from previous survey numbers.

“There’s a complicated web of factors at play here,” the Qualtrics XM blog says, “but the long and short of it is this: a tough economy makes consumer loyalty harder to earn, while poor experiences in today’s competitive landscape make customers harder to keep.”

(Source: Qualtrics XM)

Reasons for poor experiences varied from service delivery issues (46%), communication problems (45%), employee interactions (39%), pricing concerns (37%), and product quality or failure (35%). 

The research found that, from a customer-service standpoint, a jump from a two-star experience to a three-star experience can “increase likelihood to buy again by a huge 68%” and the likelihood to recommend by 97%.

“It’s certainly beneficial to strive for perfection, but the biggest opportunity comes from just meeting expectations accurately,” the report says.

For more information about how to improve your email deliverability, download A Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing by Mirabel’s Marketing Manager: