Reasons US Small-Business Owners Have Switched Brands, February 2014 [CHART]

Chart - Reasons US Small-Business Owners Have Switched Brands

More than three-quarters of US small-business owners (SBOs) expect their companies to grow this year. And results from a February 2014 study by Cargo and Toluna suggest that marketers should pay attention to their customer service if they’re looking to benefit from such growth.

Nearly half (47.3%) of SBOs said that poor customer service was the most common mistake brands made. Marketers must also make an effort to relate to SBOs: Talking at SBOs (instead of with them), as well as failing to understand their businesses, were also big no-nos, cited by 44.7% and 40.7%, respectively.

Even when marketers win SBOs over, customer service is a must to keep them around. Polling found that bad customer service was the top reason SBOs changed brands or companies they did business with, cited by 17.3%. Read the rest at eMarketer.