Web traders failing to address customer questions

Britain's retailers are neglecting online shoppers by taking too long to answer emails or simply by not providing the right answers to basic customer service questions.

Research carried out by eService provider Transversal found that online retail websites could only answer five out of the 10 most often-asked customer questions. The questions vary depending on the industry concerned, but commonly include queries about deliveries or returns.

The average length of time taken by retailers to reply to customer emails was equally poor - with one online grocer taking a staggering 97 hours.

Retailers who were the slowest to answer emails were grocery and fashion companies, where consumers had to wait on average 23 hours for a reply.

Even the fastest retail sector to reply, CD and booksellers, took an average of eight hours - a complete working day.

However, Transversal pointed out that a fast response isn't any good if replies do not actually address specific questions. It said its research found that only 75 per cent of email replies from electronics, grocery and fashion companies successfully answered the question asked.

Similarly, just 60 per cent of email replies from CD and book retailers provided a useful answer.

A tenth of UK retail sales now either made online or influenced by the web, and this figure is rising, according to research from Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG).

Agreeing with the Transversal findings, IMRG director James Roper said the situation was "not good enough" for consumers, and online retailers were clearly struggling to get it right.

"The growth in online spending has taken retailers by surprise and many just don't have the means to handle the number of queries they get," Mr Roper said.

Despite this growth, Transversal's study found only eight of the 100 retailers surveyed had invested in infrastructure that would help them search for information that could adequately answer customer queries.

This forces consumers to waste time trawling through websites, or forces them to call or email separate contact centres.

"The systems are not in place or aren't up to scratch, and companies tend to duck away from answering queries. Often a retailer won't answer the query, because they can't answer it," Mr Roper said.

He also pointed out that retailers often don't have enough staff dedicated to the task of answering emails, although things are improving. However, this paradoxically makes things look even worse, because customer expectation rises accordingly.

However, Mr Roper warned that retailers have to get their act together, while Transversal added that retailers risk losing customers to rivals if the situation is not improved.

"Despite the growth of online sales, retailers are still not providing good customer service on the web," said Transversal CEO Davin Yap. "They simply wouldn't get away with it on the high street. Retailers will drive shoppers into the arms of their competition through their failings."