Customer service lets down online retailers

It is reasonable, of course, to suggest that we are living through the equivalent era of men walking in front of motor cars with red flags, when it comes to online retail trading and the management of the shopping experience for the customers. This is why any information, such as the recent survey conducted by [24]7, is vital to the development of the online trading model even if it does constitute a smack on the wrist for the retailers.

The idiosyncratically named [24]7 is a company that specialises in helping businesses improve the experiences their customers have through the use of cloud-delivered applications. These employ big data and predictive analytics to understand customers and drive better service and sales results for large enterprises.

The main finding of its survey is an important one when it comes to overall customer experience of the trading process and the retailer itself. It shows that online retailers are failing to provide shoppers with the customer support they expect and require.

This was one of the main issues identified when people bought online, with 22 percent saying a lack of customer support was most frustrating. A lack of product information was the biggest issue, with more than half, 53 percent, saying this was most frustrating.

The survey of 2,000 UK consumers, conducted by Leadership Factor, also revealed that 24 percent were frustrated by online retailers who were not getting simple things right, such as not supplying obvious customer service contact details and more importantly, not offering support at the right time. 16 percent were frustrated by their issue simply taking too long to be resolved.

This latest survey complements earlier work on the link between telephone communications and the use of credit cards, the company emphasised the need for retailers to be multichannel rather than just online. This is particularly the case when it comes to resolving customer service interaction between customer and retailer. That earlier survey showed that one in two consumers begin their customer service interactions with a phone call.

So a failure to provide customer service contact details on websites – an increasingly common experience for many online shoppers - could be costly for online retailers. It also suggests that retailers have yet to understand the importance of human interaction in the buying process. For example, they surveys have identified that most customers who have a trading history with a retailer expect that business to know that history.

From that level of information, it becomes possible for the retailer to have a fair idea of a customer’s intent, meaning leading edge retailers should predict when and why a customer needs support.

“A failure to provide customer service assistance when there is evidence that customers want to make contact, can result in lost online sales, but there are also long-term brand implications,” said Christopher Schyma, EMEA vice president for retail & consumer goods at [24]7. “Such issues play a major role in the overall customer experience and online retailers do not want to be known as the organisation that gets it wrong, as reputations can be made and lost so quickly now.”

Online shoppers still see social media as a customer service ‘last resort’ though, with only 11 percent of respondents saying they used social media for customer service interaction. This does rise significantly with younger online shoppers though – 16 percent of 18 to 24 years use social media for customer service and 20 percent of 25 to 34 year olds do so. Almost half, 47 percent, said they would rather an issue was resolved in private as opposed to complaining about bad service from an online retailer via social media.

“People are increasingly using several channels at once and even switch channels during the interaction,” continued Christopher Schyma. “When they do this, they want to retain their context and history, so online retailers must provide omnichannel service that mirrors the way that consumers interact today – interchanging between the phone, mobile apps, web and social media. What’s more, companies need to be able to proactively predict what their customers need.”

As part of the survey, respondents were asked to rank UK online retailer for their customer service. Amazon came out top, though it is interesting to note that the rest of the top five were bricks and mortar retailers. This does suggest that the traditional retailers are learning fast and now offering a much improved online customer experience than previously.

The Top Five, in order, were: Amazon, John Lewis, Argos, Tesco, and Marks & Spencer. And as a complete aside, [24]7 could take note of its own findings. Doing a web search for `[24]7’ brought up a total of 9,290 million hits, and none of the first page entries were the company in question.