Comments on: Responding to Customer Inquiries: Too Little, Too Late (or not at All)

By: Balaji M

Balaji M — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 14:12:41 +0000

A superb point well made. Thank you very much

By: Connie Smith

Connie Smith — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:10:09 +0000

I just finished an 18 city best practices roundtable tour and I am still amazed at how many companies are deficient in this area. Especially with all the valuable statistics out regarding customer loyalty and retention and the lifetime value of the customer.

By: Elaine Fogel

Elaine Fogel — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 14:56:12 +0000

Thanks, Lewis and Ted, for your responses. Isn’t it weird that there’s all this data out there, in addition to frustrated consumers, and yet the guilty companies don’t seem to be learning from their mistakes. Pity.
I’d like to see some studies that show attrition rates – percentage of customers lost annually because of companies’ lack of customer service or poor response. I suppose companies wouldn’t be too willing to report those numbers, now would they?

By: Ted Mininni

Ted Mininni — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 14:07:57 +0000

Hi Elaine,
You’ve hit the nail on the head and a very sore spot with customers. I recently published an article in the Marketing Profs newsletter on November 14, 2006, titled: “Brand Loyalty”. In that article, I cited this problem:
‘It’s truly amazing to note the number of companies who continue to acknowledge that outstanding customer service is an absolute ‘must’, and then fail to provide it. Customers continually complain about the lack of responsiveness to their questions or needs, whether they call or email a company. In fact, in repeated surveys, the American Customer Satisfaction Index, since its inception in 1994 at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, has demonstrated that companies have not delivered improved customer service over the past decade. Whether emails or phone messages are slowly or never responded to, unsatisfactory responses to problems given, or expert information lacking: this is a huge, continuing problem.’
This makes us all wonder: when are companies going to heed this problem and do something about it?

By: Lewis Green

Lewis Green — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 13:22:40 +0000

Elaine,
Your example is all too common. Here, from as article I wrote this past summer, is some data supporting a horrible business response performance:
“In a study conducted by Benchmark Portal and sponsored by eGain Communications Corp., the cross-industry response rate (all verticals) of 41 percent shows that businesses in general have a pretty abysmal record. Forty-seven percent of retailers, for example, fail to respond to customer e-mails within 24 hours, against a cross-industry rate of only 61 percent.”