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Retailers failing on customer service when it comes to email support, claims study

One in three retailers don’t respond to customer service emails and the lack of response is likely impacting consumer loyalty and shopper satisfaction.

February 11, 2016

One in three retailers don’t respond to customer service emails and the lack of response is likely impacting consumer loyalty and shopper satisfaction.

Delivering excellent customer service could pay off as a new study reveals 60 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for a better shopping experience.

The 2016 Customer Service Benchmark report, which assessed how 250 companies manage customer support, sent an email template to each company with two questions and scored results on how fast the companies responded, the support content, quality and even tone of the response.

Here are the key findings:

• 32 percent of companies do not respond to customer service emails
• 66 percent of companies do not acknowledge or inform the customer that an email has been received
• 92 percent of companies do not follow up with customers to see if they are satisfied with the response
• One in five (22 percent) companies are able to answer questions in the first reply
• Average response time to handle a customer service request is 17 hours and 28 minutes

"The research shows a majority are failing to meet customer expectations and costing millions of dollars in lost customers and unnecessary internal follow-up work," states the study.