As Guerrilla Marketers, we are (or at least we should be) acutely aware of the lifetime value of a customer. We know that it costs six times more to sell something to a prospect than it does to sell to an existing customer. So what are the true costs of a lost customer? If you’ve lost a client due to poor customer service, you’ve not only lost that sale, but likely future sales from that customer. But the true costs go well beyond that one dissatisfied customer.

It used to be that if a customer had a bad experience, they’d tell a handful of people. Today, in the Internet age, that one customer’s wrath can go viral and spread like wildfire. The damage to the “offending” company can be devastating. Take the well-documented tale of “Dell Hell.” In case you hadn’t heard of that PR disaster, journalist and blogger Jeff Jarvis had some misfortune with a Dell laptop, and his experience was so bad that he blogged about it. Word of the Dell Hell incident mushroomed, and soon the Internet was littered with similar complaints vilifying Dell. The public outcry became so loud that it got the attention of CEO Michael Dell, who eventually sat down with Jarvis to try to make peace.

Although that particular story had a relatively happy ending, with Dell going on to address the complaints and become much more proactive in the area of customer service, you can only imagine the millions of dollars in lost sales due to the terrible press. One man’s bad experience – a single, lost customer – led to a firestorm of negative publicity and lost customers for Dell.

Next time you’re wondering what one customer is worth, think about Dell Hell and the true costs of an unhappy customer. It can mean the difference between a lifetime of ka-chings or a lifetime of disappearing dollars!

Lou Bortone, your online branding guy (www.OnlineBrandingGuy.com)