By David Daniels
07/07/2003 2:00 PM EST
URL:
http://www.callcentermagazine.com/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=10818299
Satisfaction with service via the phone has increased year-over-year, bucking the trend relative to e-mail and self-service. Seventy-three percent of consumers between July and December 2002 said they were satisfied or very satisfied with it (see Figure 1).
While e-mail and self-service remain fixtures of on-line service, such features are doing little to reduce staff-intensive call volume. Yet, consumers have high expectations for a speedy e-mail response. Fully 88% of consumers expect a response to their e-mail within 24 hours.
High-income consumers are particularly sensitive to e-mail response timing. Thirty-eight percent of consumers with incomes of $100,000 or more expect a six-hour turnaround. Additionally, new Internet users and mature consumers (age 55 or greater) are more sensitive to response time. Forty-one percent and 43%, respectively, expect a six-hour turnaround.
Delayed e-mail response negatively impacts not only customer satisfaction, but also call center costs and customer revenues. Fifty-eight percent of consumers surveyed said they would call when their e-mail goes unanswered, while 36% said they'd send another e-mail.
A slow e-mail response can translate into multiple customer inquiries, potentially doubling processing costs - and prompt customers to bolt. Forty-six percent said the speed and thoroughness of an e-mail response would guide future purchases from a Web site.
E-mail response times are again in decline. While improved since December 2001, December 2002 response times remain worse than those of July 2002, when contact center volume is typically lower (see Figure 2). An increasing majority of companies (52% to 64%) hired seasonal staffers, rather than contract out to outsourcers.
However, despite 54% of companies responding within 24 hours, 29% took three days or longer or didn't respond at all to a sample query. Almost half (46%) of the companies sampled failed to meet the aforementioned consumer response time expectations.
Authored by David Daniels, Senior Analyst, Jupiter Research. The firm, a unit of Jupitermedia Corporation, provides advisory services, plus syndicated and custom research. To learn more about this study visit www.jupiterresearch.com or contact info@jupiterresearch.com.