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Can You Deliver Customer Service Via E-Mail?
Studies consistently show low levels of customer satisfaction with the
ways in which businesses use emails. Too often, companies seem to be
using email as a means of avoiding other forms of contact with their
customers and their customers aren’t pleased. Their most common
complaints include:
- No confirmation that their email had been received,
- No reply received from businesses,
- Late replies received from businesses,
- Inappropriate replies received from businesses, and
- Replies received that they can’t understand.
Email-based customer service has
to date been a let-down for most customers. They expect their
communications to be given the same attention as a letter or telephone
call and instead feel that their emails have largely been ignored.
The Customer Respect Group Inc. say that only 69% of the 100 largest
companies in the U.S. respond to online enquiries; the situation appears
to be even worse for smaller firms.
BenchmarkPortal, a leading source of CRM best practices for contact
centers, conducted a study that found that online customer service
provided by SMEs is even worse than the service levels offered by large
enterprises.
Conducted in early 2005 the study, sponsored by eGain Communications
Corp, evaluated 147 SMEs across five sectors: retail, travel and
hospitality, financial services, e-business, and hi-tech manufacturing.
Some of their key findings were:
- 51% of the companies did not respond at all,
70% of the companies failed to respond within 24 hours,
- 79% of the companies responded with an inaccurate and/or incomplete
answer.
Astonishingly, 40% of online-only businesses - a category that includes
online recruiters and shopping comparison sites, failed to reply to
customer e-mail inquiries!
And what do customers do when
this happens? The answer is simple - they go away. Forrester
Research studied customer behavior and found that 70% of online
customers will go to a competitor if they don’t receive a timely
response from a company. Only 22% of online customers return to a
website after a negative experience.
There are thankfully some solutions that even smaller firms can
implement to capitalize on the cost-savings and timeliness of emails
without turning customers away.
1. Automatically Respond to All emails Received
People will be more willing to wait for a reply if their initial
communication has been acknowledged. This email acknowledgement should
include a statement that their email has been received, a commitment
that it will be acted upon, and a maximum time by which a response will
be sent.
2. Monitor E-mail Communications
A monitoring system should be set up that tracks progress of incoming
emails and their responses. It should initiate an alarm for any message
that hasn’t been responded to by the stated maximum time.
3. Have a Suitable Response Structure
Emails are perceived by customers as being just as important as a letter
or a telephone call. They should be answered in the same manner as any
other form of communication – politely and with the intention of
retaining the customer. Those persons responsible for preparing a
response need both communications skills and the authority to resolve
situations.
4. Consider Webforms for Use by Customers
It’s simple enough to set up a series of webforms for customers to use,
depending on whether their communication is a product enquiry, a
complaint, a request for information about how to use a product, or for
some other purpose. This make it easier for the customer and for the
team members charged with responsibility for preparing a reply.
5. Make Use of FAQs
It’s surprising just how many customer communications are for the same
reasons; enquiries tend to repeat themselves. Create a database of your
most common questions and answers that can be used to create an ‘FAQ’
(Frequently Asked Questions) section on your website. It can also be
used as a source of content for those preparing responses to customer
emails.
6. Analyze Trends in Customer Communications
A sudden upsurge in complaints about a particular aspect of your company
or a rise in enquiries about warranties can be pointers to important
trends that are beginning to develop. Analyze all incoming customer
communications to spot these trends and keep on top of them.
Email is one of our most valuable channels of modern business
communications. It can bring real savings in time and money when applied
in areas where customers and companies interact, but only if it’s used
wisely.
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