According to a new research, many British customers are more willing to switch over to competitor companies owing to poor customer experiences with their present ones.

An online survey of 2,023 UK customers conducted by RightNow for Harris Interactive, a market research firm, illustrates this point.

An overwhelming 90% of respondents who stopped doing business with a particular organisation following poor customer experiences have switched to competitive companies.

Around 36% stated they were willing to give a company less than one week to resolve their service issues before going on to their competitor. About 21% of them have even registered their displeasure with the kind of service they got on a social networking site.

However, 17% of those surveyed revised their views about a company by posting positive comments about them after their issues were addressed by the companies. Besides, 10% go on to become loyal customers if their issues have been addressed satisfactorily.

Another important point which comes out of the survey is that 83% of British consumers are willing to shell out more for better customer services.

RightNow VP of EMEA Ian Tickle said consumers are more canny than ever when it comes to customer experiences.

"Get it right and customers will pay more and remain loyal – get it wrong and the clock is ticking while they are busy finding another company to spend their money with," Tickle said.