Code of Ethics Consumers Awareness  

Customer Service Advocacy
By now you should know customer service procedure and policy can make or break a companies ability to retain customers. The writing is now clearly on the wall as consumers are starting to rebel against many of the e-commerce Sites that have mastered the technology on how to sell goods and services on the Net but have forgotten that it's not just getting customers to your Site but keeping them coming back. There are some startling statistics that show the internet community, other than the few that have mastered the CRM (Customer Retention Model), as a whole is failing at providing the type of customer service needed to retain customers.

Take a look at a few numbers below (august 2000):

These numbers come from the Gartner groups top 50 Web Sites.

None of them rated better than average, and almost 75% rated below average for Customer Service Related issues.Click for more.

Of the top 50:

  • Only 6% ask if the customer would like to be called
  • Only 24% have instant messaging
  • Only 28% ever acknowledge that they received an email

Other numbers from cPulse:

  • 4 out of 5 online purchasers have experienced one failed purchase
  • 28% of all online purchases fail
  • 25% of those frustrated in an online purchase say they won’t shop online again (ouch!) -- and 23% won’t buy from that particular site anymore.
  • While the number of users continues to increase the number of online sales has dropped 50% since this time last year.

What are they doing wrong you ask?

  • Hiding the link or tab to customer service.
  • Not having a link to customer service.
  • Requiring a customer to download software to access customer service.
  • Requiring a password to get customer service.
  • Lack of coordination between the online and offline storefronts, including knowledge of what was available.
  • Lack of good customer service by phone.
  • Not answering emails.
  • Making customers hold on the phone for long periods of time.
  • Never providing a phone number to call customer service.
What can your organization do to help solve some of these issues? Check out our section on Customer Retention Models  to learn more about increasing the level of service you can provide to keep your customers coming back.