You can not necessarily trust your customers to tell you. Few will take the time to complain or fill out a survey (especially online), they will simply go to a competitor or worse, social media to complain. Better to ask these questions:

★ Is our market share slipping?

★ Is it costing more to acquire new customers?

★ Are we losing existing customers more rapidly (churn)?

★ Are we getting fewer recommendations and favorable reviews online and in social media?

★ How much pain would our customers have to go through to switch to a competitor (switching costs)?

Getting the answers to these questions will not only help determine the current quality of the customer experience but will also form the basis of a business case to do something about it.