They're off! Online betting sites not up to scratch

The UK’s 29 million regular punters on online gambling sites are getting poor levels of service.

A independent audit of the Top 100 most popular online gambling sites in the UK claimed that there is still much to be done to improve customer service levels in the £5bn market.

Carried out by customer service specialist, Talisma, the undercover survey was designed to discover whether betting via the internet was legal in the UK. The company said that a recent anti-internet gambling bill in the US has thrown up some confusion among prospective customers.

Posing as a customer it went to check it out and found that 40 per cent of emails were ignored, 16 per cent of calls were not answered and 30 per cent of internet chat requests were not answered.

Talisma reported that 80 per cent of the websites had disparate systems supporting different communication channels, meaning that staff were not able to access the necessary information to solve enquires. In addition, only four per cent of sites were able to provide users with a service that allowed them to search online help documents for solutions to their problems.

“Over the past few years the industry has made a significant investment in online gambling sites,” Jon McNerney, vice-president international operations at Talisma.

“Many organisations are failing to integrate their online services with customer service operations. When you consider that the online gambling market is becoming increasingly competitive and that customers are able to move to a competitor with a click of a mouse, organisations need to start perceiving customer service as a differentiator rather then a luxury.”