Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Who is the tops when it comes to online customer service. Other than anecdotally, the only real way to tell is via mystery shopping, which is what consultancy company the e-tailing group does in order to arrive at its top-ranked list. This year, 11 merchants have been recognized for excelling at online customer service based on the e-tailing group’s 10th Annual Mystery Shopping Study.

 

"As the online channel matures it is essential for merchants to prioritize exemplary service or growth rates will continue to decline and flatten out," cautions Lauren Freedman, President, the e-tailing group. "Throughout this year’s study we clearly saw a divide between merchants that just provide baseline service and those that truly have a customer service culture. Great service leads to loyalty and those merchants who make it the differentiator will profit from their investments," she asserts.
 
Of the 100 sites shopped throughout the fourth quarter of 2007, those listed met all of the criteria established relative to customer service and communication (which are listed later in this article).

 

Four additional sites, including one prior-year winner, met all criteria but did not make the final cut because their toll-free phone numbers were not clearly visible on the home page (present on 63 percent of the 100 sites shopped). "This is a perfect example of a simple to execute customer-centric feature that builds trust and decreases site abandonment," explains Freedman. "Personally I rarely purchase from a merchant that cannot be easily contacted; where it is a bit like ‘Where’s Waldo?’ to locate their phone number."