<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<blog-post>
  <author-id type="integer">42244</author-id>
  <blog-comments-count type="integer">1</blog-comments-count>
  <blog-post-status-id type="integer">3</blog-post-status-id>
  <body-format>econsultancy_xml</body-format>
  <body-formatted>
  &lt;p&gt;The&#160;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/press-releases/2861-uk-organisations-fail-2007-customer-service-test"&gt;research&lt;/a&gt;, by&#160;Transversal, looked at the different customer service channels&#160;of 100 major UK firms&#8217; sites, including&#160;FAQs sections, email and contact centres. &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;It found that:&lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;ul&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;Websites, on average, could only provide answers for 50% of common customer queries. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;Telecoms, insurance, travel, electronics, grocers and utility performed worst -&#160;all were unable to answer 60% of consumer queries online. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;Grocery and electronics&#160;retailers slipped since last year's study, with average&#160;correct responses to emails falling from 80% to 55% and 90% to 55% respectively. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;Contact centres performed better, with 67% of calls answered within three minutes. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;As with last year's study, &lt;a href="/blog/333-telecoms-companies-criticised-for-poor-online-customer-service"&gt;telecoms&#160;firms were among the worst performers&lt;/a&gt; -&#160;giving&#160;accurate reponses to emails just&#160;25% of the time,&#160;and failing&#160;to answer 60% of questions on their websites.&#160;&#160; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;Travel websites have performed badly in the last two surveys.&#160;They fail to answer 60% of common questions and had an average email response time of 58 hours. &lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;/ul&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Related stories:&lt;/strong&gt;
    &lt;br /&gt;
    &lt;a href="/blog/965-firms-could-improve-customer-self-service"&gt;Firms could improve customer self-service&lt;/a&gt;
    &lt;br /&gt;
    &lt;a href="/blog/1946-10-tips-on-improving-online-customer-service"&gt;10 tips on improving online customer service&lt;/a&gt;
  &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Related research:&lt;/strong&gt;
    &lt;br /&gt;
    &lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/online-customer-service-solutions-buyer-s-guide-2007"&gt;Online Customer Service Solutions Buyer's Guide 2007 &lt;/a&gt;
  &lt;/p&gt;
</body-formatted>
  <body-unformatted>&lt;FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;The&#160;&lt;Link URL="http://econsultancy.com/press-releases/2861-uk-organisations-fail-2007-customer-service-test" Window="Self"&gt;research&lt;/Link&gt;, by&#160;Transversal, looked at the different customer service channels&#160;of 100 major UK firms&#8217; sites, including&#160;FAQs sections, email and contact centres. &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;It found that:&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;List Type="Disc"&gt;
    &lt;ListItem&gt;Websites, on average, could only provide answers for 50% of common customer queries. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/ListItem&gt;
    &lt;ListItem&gt;Telecoms, insurance, travel, electronics, grocers and utility performed worst -&#160;all were unable to answer 60% of consumer queries online. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/ListItem&gt;
    &lt;ListItem&gt;Grocery and electronics&#160;retailers slipped since last year's study, with average&#160;correct responses to emails falling from 80% to 55% and 90% to 55% respectively. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/ListItem&gt;
    &lt;ListItem&gt;Contact centres performed better, with 67% of calls answered within three minutes. &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/ListItem&gt;
    &lt;ListItem&gt;As with last year's study, &lt;Link URL="/blog/333-telecoms-companies-criticised-for-poor-online-customer-service" Window="Self"&gt;telecoms&#160;firms were among the worst performers&lt;/Link&gt; -&#160;giving&#160;accurate reponses to emails just&#160;25% of the time,&#160;and failing&#160;to answer 60% of questions on their websites.&#160;&#160; &lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;LineBreak /&gt;&lt;/ListItem&gt;
    &lt;ListItem&gt;Travel websites have performed badly in the last two surveys.&#160;They fail to answer 60% of common questions and had an average email response time of 58 hours. &lt;/ListItem&gt;
  &lt;/List&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;
    &lt;Emphasis&gt;Related stories:&lt;/Emphasis&gt;
    &lt;LineBreak /&gt;
    &lt;Link URL="/blog/965-firms-could-improve-customer-self-service" Window="Self"&gt;Firms could improve customer self-service&lt;/Link&gt;
    &lt;LineBreak /&gt;
    &lt;Link URL="/blog/1946-10-tips-on-improving-online-customer-service" Window="Self"&gt;10 tips on improving online customer service&lt;/Link&gt;
  &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;
    &lt;Emphasis&gt;Related research:&lt;/Emphasis&gt;
    &lt;LineBreak /&gt;
    &lt;Link URL="http://econsultancy.com/reports/online-customer-service-solutions-buyer-s-guide-2007" Window="Self"&gt;Online Customer Service Solutions Buyer's Guide 2007 &lt;/Link&gt;
  &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
&lt;/FormattedContent&gt;</body-unformatted>
  <created-at type="datetime">2007-12-06T12:18:00+00:00</created-at>
  <enabled-blog-comments-count type="integer">1</enabled-blog-comments-count>
  <expertise-level-id type="integer">1</expertise-level-id>
  <extract-format>econsultancy_xml</extract-format>
  <extract-formatted>
  &lt;p&gt;
    &lt;strong&gt;Major UK firms&#160;take an average of 46 hours to respond to customers' emails, according to a new study that shows pretty mixed levels of customer service online. &lt;/strong&gt;
  &lt;/p&gt;
  &lt;p&gt;What's more, that's 13 hours more than the average last year.&#160;&#160;&lt;strong&gt;&#160;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</extract-formatted>
  <extract-unformatted>&lt;FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;
    &lt;Emphasis&gt;Major UK firms&#160;take an average of 46 hours to respond to customers' emails, according to a new study that shows pretty mixed levels of customer service online. &lt;/Emphasis&gt;
  &lt;/Paragraph&gt;
  &lt;Paragraph&gt;What's more, that's 13 hours more than the average last year.&#160;&#160;&lt;Emphasis&gt;&#160;&lt;/Emphasis&gt;&lt;/Paragraph&gt;
&lt;/FormattedContent&gt;</extract-unformatted>
  <featured type="boolean">false</featured>
  <id type="integer">2011</id>
  <learn-more-formatted>&lt;p&gt;For further information about email marketing, download Econsultancy's &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-census"&gt;Email Census&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (based on a survey of digital marketers) and the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-buyers-guide"&gt;Email Marketing Platforms Buyer's Guide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (particularly relevant for the UK market). See also the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-statistics"&gt;Email Statistics Compendium&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</learn-more-formatted>
  <learn-more-unformatted>&lt;p&gt;For further information about email marketing, download Econsultancy's &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-census"&gt;Email Census&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (based on a survey of digital marketers) and the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-buyers-guide"&gt;Email Marketing Platforms Buyer's Guide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; (particularly relevant for the UK market). See also the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/email-marketing-statistics"&gt;Email Statistics Compendium&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</learn-more-unformatted>
  <legacy-article-id type="integer">364724</legacy-article-id>
  <name>Firms' email response times 'getting worse'</name>
  <private type="boolean">false</private>
  <published-at type="datetime">2007-12-06T14:34:00+00:00</published-at>
  <slug>firms-email-response-times-getting-worse</slug>
  <tweetbacks-updated-at type="datetime">2009-04-28T23:02:35+01:00</tweetbacks-updated-at>
  <unpublished-at type="datetime" nil="true"></unpublished-at>
  <updated-at type="datetime">2009-10-13T09:26:57+01:00</updated-at>
  <views-count type="integer">300</views-count>
</blog-post>
