News
Sites failing to resolve customer requests via email
Posted on March 21, 2006

According to a JupiterResearch survey, only 45% of websites resolved email inquiries within 24 hours, while 39% of websites took three days or longer to reply or did not respond at all.

The study, entitled "U.S. Customer Service & Support Metrics, December 2005," has also found that of the 92% of Web sites offering email as a customer support option, only 41% acknowledge receipt of customers' messages with automated email responses.

"Our research highlights a continued struggle among companies to master the email touch point," said Zachary McGeary, Associate Analyst at JupiterResearch and author of the report. "This growing segment of unresponsive companies is damaging customer loyalty and retention. These companies must either invest in appropriate technology or deprioritize email as a service touch point," added McGeary.

JupiterResearch pinpoints two main elements driving this unresponsiveness.

The first is the continued rise in email volume and broad failure among contact centers to invest in appropriate email handling technology with the levels of automation necessary for handling email in large volumes.

The second pertains to a consumer's propensity to contact the call centers when emails go unanswered.

"Failure to resolve requests via email is driving continued use of cost-intensive telephone work, negating any potential cost savings from handling inquiries via email," said David Schatsky, Senior Vice President of Research at JupiterResearch. "This continued rise of unresponsiveness does not bode well for customer satisfaction, which is ironically a top driver of investment in most customer service-related technology," added Schatsky.

The complete findings of this report are available to JupiterResearch clients online at www.jupiterresearch.com
SOURCE: Jupitermedia Corporation