An unhappy customer will tell between 9 and 15 people about their bad experience. A whopping 13% will tell more than 20 people.
Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC )

For every customer who complains to you, there are 26 other unhappy customers who didn’t tell you about it.
( Source: Lee Resource Inc ).

It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one negative experience
( Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner )

These are some pretty scary numbers.  If one person complains to you, this means:

• You actually have 27 unhappy customers
• Between them, they’ve told maybe 400 others about their bad experience with you

Is this the kind of word-of-mouth advertising you rely on?