Online businesses in the UK respond slowly and give bad advice to their customers, a report has found.
As a result, consumers are being forced to pick up the phone when attempting to have their needs addressed, says eService provider Transversal.
The company asked 100 websites from a range of sectors ten basic customer service questions. The average response time was 46 hours and less than half the questions were answered correctly.
Poor responses such as these are forcing customers to use other channels of communication, Transversal says.
In contrast, 42% of calls to contact centres were answered within a minute, with 67% answered within three minutes.
Telecoms, insurance, travel, consumer electronics, grocers and utilities companies were rated lowest for meeting online customer service requirements – with just 60% of queries answered. The fashion sector was rated top, with 70% of questions answered, but had the lowest score for email response, taking an average of 116 hours to answer.
David Yap, CEO of Transversal, said: “Despite the enormous growth in the online channel, across all sectors, our research shows that consumers are still suffering from sub-standard online service.
“While we’ve seen marginal improvements over the three years that we have carried out this analysis, a lack of a cohesive multi-channel strategy means in the majority of cases it is quicker to call than visit a company’s website.
“With the massive investment made in the online channel and its ability to offer unparalleled tailoring and personalisation UK,organisations need to start giving the answers online.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007
