Online communication: responsiveness to customers is key!
Customers expect your online communications to be just as efficient and prompt as phone and mail communications.
I recently broke the bracket for an LED light on my bicycle, so I found the manufacturer's web site, navigated to the support area, filled out a short form with my contact info and a request for replacement, and submitted the form. Three days went by with no response. So I did what most consumers would do—I picked up the phone and called.
I got through to a representative quickly, with no time on hold. I gave her the model number of the light, and in a minute or two she confirmed the part I needed, took my contact info, and gave me a confirmation number for shipment of a replacement. She didn't even ask if the part was defective (it wasn't, I broke it by being careless), and the whole process took under five minutes.
I told the representative that the reason I called was that I received no response from my online inquiry. She responded that they have a backlog of emails, perhaps five weeks worth, and there was only one person to answer them. I noted that these days, it is reasonable for customers to expect a response to emails within two business days. It's great that I was able to get my inquiry handled quickly over the phone, but what about all those emails sitting around for weeks?
The way this company (which will go unnamed) handles online inquiries is both bad for customers, and inefficient. Customers who don't receive a prompt response to their online inquiries will either give up, and leave the transaction with a negative view of the company; or call them, like I did. In the latter case, they may get their inquiry resolved, but now their original request is sitting in a email that will be read one month later, causing the company to duplicate their efforts to respond to the customer.
A simple interim solution to this problem is to put all the phone staff on email response duty, and get all those messages caught up right away. In the longer term, this company needs to realize that customers expect responsiveness from a company, no less online than via phone or mail. They need to dedicate the necessary staff to answering all inquires within two business days or faster. There's no longer any excuse for a company not to provide prompt and robust responses to online inquiries.
-Ben Seigel, Wwner, Versa Studio
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