Which Companies do Cyber Monday Customer Service Best?

With “Cyber Monday (News - Alert)” (the Monday following Thanksgiving that has become the biggest e-commerce sales day of the year) becoming as big a part of American retail consciousness as the traditional “Black Friday (News - Alert),” it’s no surprise that retailers hoping to stay alive through the following year are relying on the day to make great strides toward completing their end of year sales goals.

But are they prepared for the multimedia onslaught that Cyber Monday brings to websites and call centers? That’s another story, according to an article in the Orlando Sentinel.

According to StellaService, which analyzes customer service performance, last year is a good basis for how e-commerce companies will support their customers this year. On Cyber Monday 2011, it took more than seven minutes on average for callers to reach a live person on the phone. Average call hold times are 139 percent higher than normal on Cyber Monday, StellaService reports.

So what about e-mail response times? Those aren’t generally very good on Cyber Monday, either. Of a list of top retailers, only four responded to 100 percent of the customer e-mail messages sent to them within 24 hours, StellaService reported. These four were: HPShopping.com; Toys ‘R’ Us; Amazon and Overstock.com.

So who did the best job last year in responsiveness to customers on Cyber Monday? StellaService ranks them as follows, with the number of minutes and seconds it took them on average to answer customer inquiries:

1.      Nordstrom.com 00:18

2.      Overstock.com 00:44

3.      LLBean.com 00:46

4.      Zappos.com 01:09

5.      Target (News - Alert).com 01:18

6.      Sears.com 01:22

7.      Amazon.com 01:40

8.      ToysRUs.com 01:59

9.      QVC.com 02:03

10.    Gap.com 02:22

While 2012’s numbers are not yet available, it’s likely that many of these players will appear on the new list. When that information becomes available, we’ll report it.

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