Top online retailers fail test of customer service
Think customer service reps should know the answers to such basic questions as which cards does an online retailer accept or how much does a customer pay for shipping? Think, again, says new research from Talisma Corp., provider of customer relationship management software.
Posing as customers, Talisma researchers shopped the sites of the 100 largest online retailers. Only 51% of e-mails and 72% of phone calls accurately responded to basic questions on such topics as payment options and shipping costs, Talisma reports. The company says the answer to why those percentages are so low could be as simple as the fact that the reps were not paying enough attention to detail or as complex as the company’s not having an internal database that reps could use to look up the answers.
In addition, the Talisma study reported that a surprising 34% of customer service e-mail inquiries went unanswered and that 97% had no online database that customers could use to answer their own questions.
“While conducting the survey, Talisma found that some of the retailers had static frequently asked questions and answers within their web sites, usually under the Help tab,” says a Talisma spokesman. “There were few searchable knowledge bases of information that would allow a customer to quickly and accurately find the information they are looking for, which is what the web sites were missing in terms of an effective self-service environment when this survey was conducted.”
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