With the biggest shopping season of the year right around the corner, retailers can expect more customers turning to online channels for service inquiries, according to a new consumer poll released today. The survey indicates that while many American consumers will continue to contact retailers through traditional phone (74 percent) and store (47 percent) channels, online channels-e-mail (26 percent), web sites (15 percent) and instant messaging (8 percent)-are rapidly becoming many consumers’ preferred method of handling service issues. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive® and commissioned by RightNow Technologies(Company
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This new data comes as more companies are striving to provide a “multi-channel” customer service experience to ensure customer satisfaction and lower operating costs. U.S. companies spent $7.14 billion on customer relationship management (CRM) software and services in 2002* and 65 percent of U.S. retailers plan to increase their CRM spending in 2004**.
According to the survey, retailers can expect a 60 percent spike in overall service inquiry volume during the holiday season (November and December). Adding to the burden of this increased volume is the high expectation consumers have for inquiry response time. On average, American consumers consider a seven-minute waiting time to be acceptable for a phone inquiry and a 10-hour waiting time to be acceptable for an e-mail or web site inquiry. The majority of American consumers (68 percent) said less than five minutes is acceptable for responding to phone inquiries and nearly half (48 percent) said less than five hours is acceptable for responding to email or web site inquiries.
“Companies need to be more smart about using the Internet to handle repetitive customer service inquiries in order to free up their contact center staff to handle more expensive, complex service issues,” Greg Gianforte, CEO and founder of RightNow, said. “Strategic use of online service solutions can also deliver substantial cost savings to companies since a typical human-assisted service phone call and email transaction cost $7 and $2.25, respectively.”
Among the factors that are “extremely or very important” in making a holiday gift purchase from a company, the survey found that product quality ranked the highest (91 percent) followed by customer service (68 percent), price (67 percent), return policy (64 percent) and company brand (26 percent).
“Good customer service will always be a competitive differentiator for a company,” Gianforte said. “However, companies should also realize customer relationship management is all about people, processes, and then lastly technology.”
To view the complete RightNow/Harris Interactive survey results, go to: http://www.rightnow.com/pdf/harris_rnt_s.pdf
* Source: Aberdeen Group, June 2003
** Source: National Retail Federation, Gartner Dataquest, Ogden Associates, May 2003
About the Poll
On behalf of RightNow Technologies, Harris Interactive conducted a telephone survey among a nationally representative sample of 1,019 adults comprising 511 men and 508 women 18 years of age and older, living in private households in the continental United States. The telephone interviews for the survey were completed during the period October 16-19, 2003. The survey used an unrestricted Random Digit Dialing (RDD)
technique that controls the amount of serial bias found in systematic sampling. Only one interview was conducted per household. Completed interviews were weighted by age, sex, geographic region and race to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total population. The margin of error for the total sample in the survey is plus or minus 3.1 percent.
About Harris Interactive®
Harris Interactive (www.harrisinteractive.com) is a worldwide market research and consulting firm best known for The Harris Poll®, and for pioneering the Internet method to conduct scientifically accurate market research. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, U.S.A., Harris Interactive combines proprietary methodologies and technology with expertise in predictive, custom and strategic research. The Company conducts international research through wholly owned subsidiaries-London-based HI Europe (www.hieurope.com) and Tokyo-based Harris Interactive Japan-as well as through the Harris Interactive Global Network of local market- and opinion-research firms, and various U.S. offices.
About RightNow Technologies
RightNow Technologies is the leading customer service and support solutions company that radically and rapidly improves the effectiveness of service and support operations with easy-to-implement/easy-to-use technology, replicable best practices drawn from the industry’s broadest base of successful implementations, and engagement terms that create accountability for delivering quantifiable results.
RightNow has delivered these benefits to more than 1,000 customers worldwide such as: Air New Zealand, Ben & Jerry’s, Briggs and Stratton, British Airways, Cisco, Dolby Laboratories, Inc., Electronic Arts, Pioneer, Raymarine, Remington, Sanyo, Specialized Bicycles, and more than 150 public sector clients including the Social Security Administration and the State of Florida.
Founded in 1997, RightNow has offices in Bozeman, Dallas, San Mateo, London, and Sydney, with an associated office in Tokyo. RightNow’s products are available in 17 languages worldwide. For further information visit http://www.rightnow.com/.
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