Analyst News -- August 2003
When it comes to customer retention on the Web, uncertainty fans the fires of dissatisfaction and leads many to opt for more costly, real-time customer service channels (e.g., phone). While self-service alternatives are less costly, offering an unqualified recommendation without knowing if a customer has attempted to use online self-service can add to customers' frustration.
Jupiter's recent quarterly customer service WebTrack revealed that 89 percent of consumer goods sites offered e-mail as a customer support option. Of these sites, just 21 percent acknowledged the receipt of such messages by replying to the sender. Of sites that sent an e-mail acknowledgement, 49 percent suggested alternative customer service methods. Of these, the majority directed customers to online self-service solutions, and others invited customers to use a toll-free phone number.
Slow Response
Jupiter's customer service consumer survey indicates that 88 percent of consumers expect a complete response (resolution) to their email inquiry within 24-hours. Moreover, 43 percent of online buyers age 55 and older expect their email inquiries to be turned around within six hours. CG sites must be aware of these consumer expectations and be prepared to meet this online inquiry volume. When Jupiter tracked the responsiveness of CG sites in December 2002, just one third (33 percent) of the sites we sampled responded to our inquiry within 24-hours. Overall only nine percent of the sites tracked responded and resolved these inquiries within six hours. A staggering 42 percent took three days or longer to respond to our inquiries or simply did not reply at all.
Quality Control
Consumers have indicated in several consumer surveys that the quality of customer service has an impact on their relationship with the brand, creating revenue and cost implications such as:
Fifty-eight percent of consumers say they will make a phone call when their first inquiry goes unanswered, essentially snowballing service costs across channels.
Fifty-seven percent of consumers say that the efficiency of a service response would impact their decision to make future purchases from a particular website.
Eighty-nine percent say that after a dissatisfying service experience they would be less likely to purchase from that site again online, while 60 percent would tell others about their poor experience and 59 percent claim that it would adversely impact their spending at the sites offline retail locations.
CG companies must realize that performance issues with Web-site email inquiries can have negative long-term impact on its brand and potentially cascade across channels impacting offline retail/channel partners. Take the following near term steps to improve e-mail handling and response time:
Deploy customer service representatives to email processing exclusively. This will create accountability and provide a consistent baseline from which productivity can be measured.
Measure and categorize email volume, productivity, response times and first contact resolution rates. Inbound e-mails should be measured the same way as inbound phone calls in the call center. Use auto replies to set appropriate and realistic response time expectations with customers. Should response times begin to lag, update auto-replies to reflect the new turnaround targets.
Develop standard response times, responses and escalation procedures to ensure that no e-mail gets left behind.
Invest in appropriate e-mail management technology. No one would ever consider opening up a call center without some form of call routing and reporting and e-mail should be no different. Remove the double standard, even if there are only a handful of e-mail service reps to benefit from ASP vendors such as RightNow Technologies and EchoPass that can affordably provide e-mail management tools.
Marry e-mail processing to existing call center workflows. One of the biggest issues with e-mail automation packages is that they do not naturally fit the call center work flow and appear more like a personal e-mail management tool on steroids, promoting a massive inbox for reps to pick and choose from. E-mail should be no different than phone calls, therefore, push e-mail to the service associates one at a time, just like a phone call. The representative will have no choice but to answer the e-mail or escalate to a manager.
Improving online customer service is a long-term commitment that can bolster brand loyalty. By addressing and deploying the aforementioned issues, enhanced customer retention is just a click away